Another Way
by Ooshie
Summary: Things go a bit differently at the dragon's nest. First movie AU.
1. Chapter 1

I hunched low over Hiccup's back while looking at the mammoth thing in front of us, I could feel my body shaking from the fear, and could barely hear anything over the pounding of my heart in my ears.

"Come on Buddy, time to go." Hiccup whispered to Toothless.

I wrapped my arms tighter around Hiccup's middle preparing for the surge of movement but, Toothless didn't move. He simply hunkered down even lower than he was and gave a bit of a twitch with one ear. I hadn't been around him much, but Toothless' message was a clear "Be Quiet!" As he shuffled a bit further back on the ledge and behind the pillar of rock that was forming our hiding place.

Thoughts raced through my mind. This was just like a bee hive, and this was the queen. What keeps the dragons coming back? They are obviously scared silly of the thing why not just leave? Could they leave?

All pondering came to a halt when the huge head surged up and then to the side to crash into the ledge just above our hiding spot. A shower of rocks came down, thankfully none of them where too large, but I had a burning sensation across the side of my face where one had glanced off.

Suddenly Toothless burst into action. Firing several of his lightening like fire bolts directly at the Queens face, just as he launched off the ledge. We were flung into the air like a stone from a catapult, I fought to keep my head from snapping back and stayed as low as I could so that Hiccup's head wouldn't hit me in the face. The Queen roared, in anger or pain or maybe both, and all the smaller dragons suddenly took off in a huge swarm. A few of them also sending off blasts of fire at the Queens face as she shook and sunk her head back down in to the mists.

"Go! Go!" Hiccup shouted at Toothless and all the other dragons around us. It was like being in a flock of birds. They were all desperately trying to escape through the small opening at the top of the volcano, which got even more frantic as a huge gust of wind started hitting us in the face. We were being pulled back in! I looked back to see the Queen inhaling and gas building in her throat.

"Hiccup!" I shouted and nearly head butted him as I turned forward again.

"I see it!" He yelled back. "Toothless! We don't stand a chance if we can't get clear!" Hiccup yelled at Toothless in desperation.

Toothless surged forward. I could feel his muscles under my legs shaking with the effort he was pouring into trying to get us out. We cleared the mouth about 10 heartbeats ahead of the flames, the heat buffeted my back and sent Toothless spinning for a few heartbeats before he straightened back out again.

"I feel really dizzy" I almost whispered over Hiccups shoulder, he looked back at me, his face incredibly pale even in the moonlight.

"It doesn't seem to be following us." Hiccup said "Let's hope it stays that way."

Toothless groaned. His muscles were jumping so hard under my legs it was almost seizure like.

"A little further bud." Hiccup soothed "We just need to make sure it's not following us, Okay?"

Toothless burbled a bit and nodded his head, even I could hear the exhaustion in his voice.

How did this dragon seem to understand everything Hiccup said? And more Hiccup understood the dragon, granted the dragon was pretty expressive as animals went. It made me wonder how many of the others were like this, or was it just the Night Fury that seemed gifted with this level of intelligence? It made me rather anxious to get back to Berk and take a closer look at the dragons in the training ring, as I had not missed the Nadder laughing at Snotlout anything that thought he was a joke couldn't be too bad, I laughed a bit to myself.

"Okay Toothless, let's find a good spot. I don't see anything following." Hiccup's voice broke me out of own thoughts, and brought me back to the moment. We were landing on a small island that looked to be near the edge of Helheim's Gate, we weren't in the fog, but I could see it.

Toothless practically flopped onto the piece of land with an exhausted sounding "ooff".

Hiccup fussed over Toothless for a few minutes after we dismounted, until the dragon made it fairly clear that he just wanted to sleep.

I laughed a bit at Hiccup, as his dragon smacked at him with his tail to discourage his worrying. Toothless curled up like a house cat and was quickly asleep. After a couple minutes of awkwardness, we sat down next to each other and rested our backs against Toothless' side.

"So" I started "You really did hit a Night Fury that night?"

Hiccup ducked his head and and looked rather ashamed of himself. "Yes, yes I did."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Yes, yes I did." Hiccup looked at the ground resolutely.

"How?" I asked.

"The bola launcher. It wrapped him up, he couldn't protect himself when he fell." The guilt in his tone was heavy. "I don't know if the ropes did it or he caught a tree or sharp rock when he came down, but it took one of his tail fins off. Now he can't fly on his own." Hiccup had tears in his eyes. "If Dad found him he would kill him. He wouldn't ask questions! And I just… I just, can't let that happen."

"Hiccup, calm down, we just have to think about this. What if they only reason the dragons are raiding us is to feed that monster? What if they are like Toothless without it?"

"How exactly are we going to kill that THING?! I'm not Snotlout, I can't block out the sun for you!" Hiccup exclaimed, waving his hands at himself as if to emphasize the point.

I blinked at him, then gave a very inelegant snort as I tried to hold back my laughter, it didn't work. "Bwahahah! Snotlout! Really! Hahahaha!"

There was a small wry smile on his face as he watched me laugh myself silly. Toothless shifted then and that helped me calm myself, the reminder that this poor dragon was exhausted, and he did it for people. That alone would make Stoic take pause, wouldn't it? With his shifting he brought his tail around us, and I got a really good look at the prosthetic tail fin as it flopped across my legs. I reached out and carefully looked at the construction.

"You made this?" I asked Hiccup. I turned to look at him and found him carefully watching me.

"Yeah, I couldn't just leave him to starve in that cove." He shrugged. He kept looking down, as if he was expecting criticism for his craftsmanship.

"I think this is amazing." I said quietly

"Really!?" His voice cracked incredulously, and his eyes suddenly snapped up to mine.

"Yes really, what gave you this idea?"

"Gobber actually."

"You're kidding" I deadpanned. "Gobber knows about this?!" I gestured vaguely at Toothless.

"No! No he doesn't, but really… you remember that night on the watch tower when Gobber told the story about losing is hand and foot? He said that you wanted to go for the wings and tails, because a 'Downed dragon is a dead dragon.' I realized that I couldn't leave Toothless like that and it evolved from there. Maybe someday I will even be able to make him one that doesn't need someone to help him fly, but he seems fairly happy with this for now."

I could practically see all the plans flowing through his head as he dreamed of Toothless flying solo once again. I hated to drag Hiccup back to reality, but felt it necessary.

"We do need to talk about what going to happen when we get back. We know about the nest and the 'Queen', and I don't think that we can just not tell your Dad."

"Queen?" Hiccup questioned.

I laughed shortly. "Yeah, it reminds me of a bee hive, so queen bee, queen dragon."

Hiccup looked thoughtful, even tapping his chin for a moment. "Queen, that make some sense. Though I don't think that most worker bees are scared of their queen. That might give us an advantage though! Did you notice how some of the other dragons also fired at her? What if we can train them to fight with us?"

"Do you think that would work? If it did, can we convince your Dad?" I am running ideas in my head. Stoic isn't going to be easy to convince. Working with Dragons? I can practically hear his outrage already.

"We don't have time." Hiccup said looking into the distance. "They expect me to kill the Nightmare tomorrow, if we had a little time maybe we could plan something."

"Well…" I hesitated to even let my next thought escape, it was treason! I would be exiled at least for this one. "What… what if we let them go?" I bit my lip hard. "The training dragons I mean? Then you don't have to kill one, and it buys us time, at least a little."

Hiccup looked up, and studied my face intently.

"Are you ready to face the consequenses if we are caught?" he asked lowly. "This won't be a game and they won't go easy one us. Are you ready to up and leave your family if necessary?" He was still staring at me, catching my eyes and making it impossible to look away.

I took a deep breath, knowing that it likely spelled my death, but knowing at the same time it would spare so many others if it worked.

"It's a huge risk. We might die, if we're lucky." I told him.

"We are Vikings."

"It's an occupational hazard." I answered him.

We both smiled at each other, but it was one that didn't reach the eyes. The decision was made, I made sure nothing was left behind as Hiccup shook Toothless awake and we were soon off. Only Odin knew what else that night could have in store.


	3. Chapter 3

A.W. #3

The flight back was quick and quiet. I shivered most of the way back, and I didn't think that it was entirely because of the cold wind buffeting against me. I could feel Hiccup getting more and more tense as we got closer to the island. The landing in the cove was smooth as Toothless backstroked and touched down lightly. I slid off his back and kind of aimlessly started moving to retrieve the axe that Hiccup had pulled from my hands earlier.

"We need a plan." Hiccup said from behind me "Or this doesn't have chance. There are the watchmen to look out for as well, and it might be really hard to keep the dragons quiet long enough."

"We need to prioritize." I replied as I replaced my axe in its holster. "Do we deal with the easier ones first or go straight for the nightmare? If we release the Nightmare, even if we don't get any of the others out it will still delay the ceremony tomorrow."

"I know, but it will draw the most attention, and it's the most unfamiliar as well. I don't know for sure what I can do with it."

"Okay, so Nadder and Gronkle first? Then Zippleback and Terror, and we do the Nightmare last, so that if we just need to run we can?" I ask.

Hiccup seemed to be pondering this. "Yeah, I think that might work well. Do you think that you can handle the Nadder on your own? It will go a lot faster if we can get them out two at a time."

I hesitated. Could I? I didn't know. "I don't know, I guess…. I'll just have to try."

Hiccup nodded in understanding. "Okay, so. We release the dragons, and don't get caught. We go home and pretend we don't know anything. Can you do that?"

Oh Gods, this just got so real. "I'll have to." Hiccup could see the hesitation on my face.

"You sure?" he asked.

"I'll have to." I replied with more resolution. He accepted it. "What if we are caught?"

"Then we run." Hiccups voice and face were grim. "They won't go easy on us, and exile is the best possible outcome we could get. I don't wanna…" He took a deep breath. "So... let's not get caught!" Hiccup was trying for a little levity.

"Let's get this over with!" I announced, wanting to move before my courage failed me, or I started second guessing myself.

Hiccup grabbed my arm as I started to turn away. "Astrid!" he hesitated. "If I get caught, get Toothless out. Dad will kill him."

I nodded, I left it unspoken that I would do my best to get him out if that was an eventuality.

"Toothless" Hiccup turned to the dragon, and his head popped up, ears alert, and eyes wide. Letting Hiccup know that all the dragons' attention was on him. "Stay here Bud, I'll be back tomorrow if it goes well, tonight if it doesn't." Toothless nodded and made some burbling noises at the boy, then looked at me. I could see the warmth and intelligence in those eyes. I also didn't believe for one moment that he would stay put if he thought Hiccup were truly in trouble.

With that Hiccup and I turned and started towards the village, he quietly gave me a few tips on dragon handling until we reached the edge of the forest.

We were quiet as we walked, not wanting to draw more attention than was necessary, and listening for others out and about. I hoped that my mother had not missed me, because our mission would be a whole lot harder if we had to try and avoid search parties too. It seemed to be an exceptionally quiet night, with only a partial moon and the stars to light our way I was very glad that Hiccup seemed as familiar with the path as I was. We moved smoothly through the outer houses and stuck to the shadows, because just getting caught sneaking around together at night would have its own consequences.

The watchman on duty tonight had a torch, so it was easy to avoid him, and we made it to the training ring without indecent.

Hiccup had given me some tips on the walk back before we got into the village and silence was necessary. Now it was time to employ them, as we separated and went to our own cages, I thought determinedly to myself as I eased back the large bolt on the nadder's door.

"Easy there, I'm not here to hurt you." I told her in as soothing a tone as I could muster. I could hear her rustling around on the other side of the door. I slowly pulled with huge heavy door open just a bit, as I continued to talk to the nadder. She started pushing the door hesitantly from the other side and it slowly swung open fully. The bright blue creature stood in the door way cocking her head to one side and then the other as if assessing me, she seemed calm enough. She chirped at me, which made my heart jump into my throat. "Shh… Shh! We have to be quiet!" I stage whispered at her. She cocked her head again and shuffled her feet and it almost looked like she shrugged, as if to say 'whatever you say', and stepped out onto the sand of the ring. I looked over to see where Hiccup was at, he looked up and gave me a 'thumbs up' with the gronkle following him to the zippleback cage, buzzing wings sounding loud in the quiet. The nadder followed me over to the terror door and began fussing with my hair, which made me laugh, she gave a quiet little titter that sure sounded like the "shh" I had given her earlier. The terror was fairly easy, the small creature seemed sleepy and climbed up on the nadders back to watch from there, after having climbed up me and noticed my discomfort with it.

By that point Hiccup had the zippleback out and calm and was working on the nightmare cage. I went over to help him pull the doors open when the nightmare hit the doors hard and they flung open violently and sent Hiccup sprawling to the ground. He cried out as he hit the ground, and all the dragons suddenly started up nervous noises as they all watched the flamed up nightmare cling to rooftop bars.

I reached Hiccup as he started to sit up, he had some blood on his forehead where the door had caught him. It didn't look too deep, but was definitely bleeding profusely as head wounds tend to do, he hissed as I pressed a strip of my skirt against it to help staunch the flow.

"We have to calm him down and get him out!" Hiccup practically shouted at me. All pretense of sneaking and quiet gone. The Nightmare charged at us growling, when the nadder jumped in between squawking and cocked her tail at the aggressive nightmare. It must have been a credible threat, because the Nightmare back down.

"I like this Nadder." I told Hiccup. "First she laughed at Snotlout's ridiculousness and now she's protecting us."

Hiccup looked at me with a completely incredulous expression on his face. "We can talk about it later! We have got to go! Now!"

He's right, I can hear shouting men getting nearer, drawn by the flames and noise of the nightmare. I start dragging Hiccup towards the main gate when I hear the distinctive screech of a Night Fury.

"Oh No!" Hiccup groaned "He can't be here now!" his voice was rising with panic.

Toothless fired and broke through the cage over the top of the training ring, and came to a skidding halt next to Hiccup and myself, and started snarling at the other dragons. Until the nadder started chirping and squawking at him telling him off for being foolish. Toothless looked a little taken aback, but then turned his attention to Hiccup, specifically his head wound that was still bleeding. Chirring and purring in a very concerned manner.

"This is great and all, but we have to get out of here now!" I yelled at Hiccup and Toothless.

"Yeah, Bud, we can deal with this later." Hiccup gestured with one hand at his head. "We have to get everyone out of here right now though." Toothless nodded and started talking to the other dragons, they started flying, and the Vikings approaching started yelling more.

"I don't think that we can hide." I told Hiccup.

He nodded looking very grim. "Are you ready for this? I don't know what the world out there is like."

"I have my axe, everything else we can make."

"HICCUP! ASTRID!" Stoic thundered at us as he pelted across the sands at us from the main gate, his hammer raised menacingly, looking past Toothless and straight at Hiccup. I felt Hiccup quail next to me, stumbling backwards towards Toothless.

Toothless growled at him, as Hiccup swung up into the saddle, and gave a hand to get me up as well.

Stoic stopped as he saw us do this. "What are you doing?! Have you sided with the devils now!" He shouted at us, waving his hammer at us.

"They aren't what you think Dad! I'm Sorry!"

"Hiccup!"

"I'll be back someday…. Probably." And with that Hiccup nudged Toothless and we launched through the hole in the roof.

The yelling continued as we pulled out of range and Toothless leveled out. I loosened my hold on Hiccup's middle and leaned my forehead against his shoulder, which was shaking. "I'm sorry." I murmured against him.

"Not your fault." He choked. "I thought he was going to kill me."

Hiccup's tears splashed against my face, blown back by the wind.

"I know" I said. "I thought so too."


	4. Chapter 4

AW#4

"Toothless, let's find someplace to rest for the night, or at least what's left of it." I spoke over Hiccup's shoulder, the dragon burbled an answer that I took to be a yes because he started going down. Hiccup was almost comatose, he just simply seemed lost in himself. It scared me because I didn't know if it was the emotions from his fathers' response or because of the head wound. His face looked rather gastly at the moment, his skin was washed out with dried blood crusted on in streaks down the left side of his face.

Toothless continued down to a small island, with some trees and a stream. Fresh water! It would be needed to clean up Hiccup and we needed it to drink. Did Toothless need fresh water? That was a thought, I realized, that for all the years I had concerned myself with dragons, I really didn't know that much about them. What do they actually eat? Since they weren't eating the food that they had stolen from us. We landed in the open area near the stream and sheltered from the wind by some large rocks and the trees. I slid off as soon as Toothless had settled, and turned back to Hiccup, unsure what to do. He was actually getting down by himself that was good.

"I don't suppose you have a flask or anything do you? For the water?" I asked hopefully.

"Um, maybe. I had a bunch of stuff packed at the cove, but obviously we didn't get that. I think there is at least one bag on the saddle, whatever is in there is what we have….for now." Hiccup seemed to be waking up again.

I checked the saddle, sure enough there were 2 bags tied there. "There are 2!"

"Well, lets see what I brought." Hiccup half laughed at himself.

I untied them and handed one to Hiccup and sat down with one myself peering inside. In mine there was a flask, a small metal bowl inside a slightly larger wooden bowl, a spoon, a small bag with flint a steel bar and some dry moss, along with a small sheathed knife.

"Okay, we have basic fire and cooking stuff in this one. What's in yours?"

Hiccup peered into his "My journals and some pencils." He sighed. "What good are these now? We need food, clothes, and shelter! Not some silly journals!" He shouted as gestured rather wildly, breaking the fragile scab on his forehead and making it start bleeding sluggishly again. Toothless began snuffling at him in concern.

"Hiccup! Hiccup! Calm down!" I grabbed his shoulder, and ran a hand along Toothless' head. "We have to think, not react. First things first, let's get your head cleaned up and then get some rest. It will be dawn soon."

He nodded kind of numbly and watched as I pulled the metal bowl out of the bag I had looked through and went over to the stream to get some water. The bank of the stream was rather steep and the water was running swiftly, but wasn't deep. I scooped some up and carefully climbed back up the bank so as not to spill the water. Hiccup was sitting on the ground leaning against Toothless when I got back to them, his eyes closed and his head tipped back, and I wondered if he had fallen asleep. I knelt down beside him and carefully tore another strip from my skirt to start washing his face and the wound on his forehead. He flinched as I touched his face with the wet cloth.

"Sorry, I know it's cold." I told him

"It's okay. Oww!" he exclaimed as I started getting closer to his wound.

"The cold aught to help it feel a little better."

Hiccup gritted his teeth, but didn't say anything as I continued to clean his cut. It was not terribly deep, but deep enough that it would probably scar. "It will probably scar, but at least it's clean." I told him.

"Not fun if you don't get a scar out of it." Hiccup deadpanned.

I snorted. "I think I am reevaluating my idea of fun."

"That might be wise."

We looked at each other for a few moments as I sat back after finishing cleaning him up. Then we both started laughing rather hysterically to be honest. The exhaustion was getting to me and I was feeling rather woozy so I set the bowl aside and sat next to Hiccup and leaned against the black dragon thankful for the warmth that he was radiating, and fell asleep.

I woke up warm and confused, and feeling quite trapped. I opened my eyes to see black. It took me a moment to realize that I was looking at the underside of a dragon wing, and I could see the sunlight dimly through the tough skin that made up the wings. Sometime in the night we had laid down instead of just leaning against Toothless. Hiccup was practically wrapped around me from one side, breathing in my ear and Toothless' flank was pressed closely on the other with his wing over the top like a tent. It was nice to know we wouldn't freeze to death, but this was going to get awkward really fast. I lay there weighing my options and trying to plan a bit. What would be our most immediate needs? Food and shelter. This island was probably too small to have many animals to hunt for food, that left fishing which we needed some equipment for unless the dragon could fish, hmm, now that was a thought. Could we get dragons to actively help us? As intelligent as Toothless seemed it might just be possible, dragons help us fish and we help keep them from the Queen? This was going to take some serious pondering. I needed to get up, as cozy as this was, my bladder was protesting and I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with Hiccup's stammering apologies if he woke up as we were. So I carefully turned and tried to scoot down, only to have Toothless tighten his wing up, obviously he was still asleep as well, the protective urge seemed strong. That protectiveness would serve us well I was sure if I could get get out! I was close to just punching Hiccup to wake him up, I grumbled to myself and tried going over the top. Suddenly there was a loud "squawk!" Toothless jumped and swatted me with his wing, in my precarious position of trying to crawl over the top of Hiccup I over balanced and landed on him with a "oooff". I looked up, well he's awake now, so I scrambled up.

"Astrid?! What?!" Hiccup sounded like he was choking.

Not analyzing that! I thought to myself. It seemed like an eternity to get out from under the dragons flapping wing and off of Hiccup. I found myself looking right at the blue nadder from Berk. The pressure in my bladder was over powering my caution, I took off for the closest clump of bushes. The nadder felt the need to follow me. Oh well, it's a dragon. What was interesting was the behavior when Hiccup started to approach.

"Astrid? Are you Okay?"

"Rawk!" the nadder fluffed her wings and stepped in front of him, interesting. A dragon protecting my modesty, very interesting. Just how smart where they?

"I'm fine!" I yelled, "Just give me a minute!"

I finished up and came out, with the nadder following me, to Hiccup finally realizing what was happening, and blushing and stammering. For as smart as I think this boy is, I wonder what his home life was like with just the Chief and no mother or siblings. Very lonely I decided, and probably rather sheltered as well.

"Astrid, hi Astrid, sorry Astrid."

I sighed, and decided that another vein of thought was good right now.

"So… how intelligent are they?" I asked as I started to rummage for the flask.

"Who? The Dragons?"

"Yeah, I mean, you saw that behavior from that nadder, she has no problem with you approaching me now, but a few minutes ago? Then with Toothless, he seems to understand everything we say or most of it at least."

Hiccup smiled, and nodded. "They seem quite intelligent, they understand language at least enough to get the idea, there is definitely some problem solving abilities as well. You remember the raids? I don't know if you paid attention, but they almost always seemed to have a plan. They would attack one area to draw attention so that others could steal from another less protected area."

"That queen of theirs seems to have some strange control over them too. Away from her they are different creatures." The nadder had continued to follow me as I had collected the bowls and flask to fill with water, and kept cocking her head from side to side to watch me.

Hiccup watched this with amusement. "I think this girl really likes you." He told me as he rubbed her nose, "I think that she's the same one from the training ring." She chattered at him in protest of attention lost, as he move away and began gathering fire wood.

"I think that you're right, I don't understand why she would like me so well, I smashed a shield on her face."

"And I shot Toothless down" He shrugged "they like who they like I guess. Hey Bud would you light this?" Hiccup asked the black dragon that was following him around the makeshift campsite. He warbled happily and spit a small ball of blue flame at the stack of wood. "Now we need to start thinking about food and shelter."

I nodded in agreement, "do you think that the dragons would help fish or hunt?" I asked.

As I asked the two dragons began cackling at each other, and then the nadder took off.

"What was that?" I asked Hiccup puzzled.

He looked at Toothless and then out to where the nadder was hovering over the water a small distance from shore, then he broke out in a grin when she suddenly dove down to snatch at something in the water. "She's fishing for you Astrid!"

Sure enough shortly thereafter was that bright blue nadder landing nearby with a rather large cod in her claws. She then proceeded to nudge the fish towards me and fluff herself in a proud manner. I came and patted her snout studying the texture of her dry warm scales under my hand and told her "Thank you."


	5. Chapter 5

Aw#5

The dragons fished! The Dragons were willing to fish for them, to help them. This was amazing!

My mind was reeling as I set to work cleaning the fish, while Hiccup set up a spit for the fire. We talked a bit as we worked. Hiccup wanted to know about my family hall, what it was like to live surrounded by people. The more he asked the more I realized just how incredibly lonely this boy was. He spent most of his time with Gobber, who was his master, not his friend. No siblings, no mother, not even any close cousins, I didn't think that Snoutlout would count, despite being first cousins as their mothers were sisters.

Hiccup seemed absolutely fascinated by my stories of my older brothers and all their antics that drove my mother up the walls, even my sister-in-laws. I told him about our Snoggletog traditions and how crazy our washdays were with everyone there and how the women all went to wash the clothes together and while it was a chore it was also bonding.

Hiccup's eyes were almost longing, "Yeah I generally did all the washing. Phlegma helped sometimes, but she had her own family to take care of." Hiccup admitted. "I mean… I guess I have been to other people's halls, but… Oh, I don't know." Hiccup seemed quite torn, he was trying to share feelings and didn't seem to know how.

"You were alone a lot?" I asked him.

"Well yeah, Dad was always busy. So if I wasn't working with Gobber….yeah, mostly." He shrugged, he laughed a little bit and added. "How do you think that I have managed to hide this guy for so long? It's been 2 moons since I shot him down, and you seemed to be the only one who even noticed that I was acting weird."

"Well weirder." I laughed at him, and he gave a wan, but real, smile in return. "Yeah, well I think Gobber noticed, he was just so happy to see the apparent improvement that he didn't want to question it."

Hiccup shrugged, "Maybe." He said noncommittally.

He checked the fish, it was done so we ate. It tasted like the best thing I had ever had, I was so hungry, having not eaten since some time the day before. Before even meeting Toothless, it seemed like a lifetime and a second at the same time.

"I wonder what my parents are doing." I suddenly spoke.

Hiccup looked up at me wide eyed, like he didn't know what to expect or say. How could he? I didn't know what to expect out of myself.

Gobber looked at Stoic cautiously, unsure whether to approach him or not. His battle brother was is sorry shape, he was taking it even worse than when Valka was taken. Which pondering on it, he could understand, Hiccup had chosen, Valka had not.

To make it worse the boy had somehow managed to convince the Hofferson girl to go with him. Gobber had not a clue as to how that one had happened. Sure everyone knew the boy had mooned after her since he had been old enough to realize she was a girl, but the girl had never given two hoots for him before. Perhaps they had been training together the last couple of moons? Enough time that Astrid had come to him last Thorsday complaining of Hiccup "acting weird", when Gobber had raised an incredulous eyebrow at her she amended her statement to "well weirder!" Gobber had sniggered and written her concerns off as an amount of jealousy, he sighed, and regretted to not paying more attention. Especially as there had already been a little niggling in the back of his mind that something strange had to be going on.

Deciding that it was probably wiser to give Stoic some space rather than following him up the hill to his hall, Gobber turned and headed for the forge.

He would take a look at Hiccups little work room sure that there would be some clues there, for he had not missed the fact that the Night Fury had been wearing a saddle and Hiccup was always one for plans, usually elaborate ones. Gobber just didn't think that Hiccup could have actually made something that big without him knowing about it, but where else had it come from?

What Gobber found in that little back room, once he had squeezed himself through the door, was astonishing, and made him regret even more not looking in on the boy more. There was not just information on the Night Fury, but the saddle and various weapons Gobber had never seen before.

The information on the Night Fury, was detailed including pictures and thoughts, Hiccup had indeed shot one down in that raid two moons ago, and apparently injured it. Hiccup being the strange boy that he was had befriended the creature instead of killing it, there were some amazing drawings of the thing. The next set of drawing was even more amazing in a way, apparently when the beast crashed down it was injured in such a way that it couldn't fly. Hiccup had gone about making a prosthetic tail for the creature.

Gobber just shook his head, it was genius and madness at the same time. No Viking in history had thought to make friends with the beasties, and this little toothpick of a boy just did it!

"Oh, Hiccup. How lonely were you that making friends with one of these beasties was even possible? And how in Odin's name did we not notice?" Gobber asked the room, and then he sat with all of Hiccups drawings and notes around him and wondered what to tell Stoic, or even if he should.

Stoic stomped up the hill to his hall angrily, vaguely aware that even Gobber had been wary of following him, and no wonder he felt like a Nightmare ready to set himself on fire with anger.

How Dare He! His son! His only child had just betrayed everything he stood for, everything that every person on this island had fought for the last 300 years, just tossed to the gulls with no thought! Stoic continued his internal ranting for quite some time stomping through the house at a loss for what to do other than simply be angry.

Finally settling down to listlessly poke at the fire, and sinking into a sort of depression.

Stoic startled awake some time later to the crashing sound of metal on wood. He had dozed off and dropped the poker on the floor, and bent to retrieve it with a sigh. Finally deciding to go up to Hiccup's room and have a look around, maybe there would be some clues up there to the madness that the boy had decided to indulge in.

Stoic slowly climbed the stairs to the loft that was Hiccups space and looked around slowly. There was not much missing, but what was, was noticeable like the large fur from his bed, so there had been some thought in leaving, perhaps not much though. However some things had been left, like some of the journals that the boy was always carrying. Those seemed as good a place to start as any, and nothing else was obvious to Stoic. Stoic sat carefully in Hiccup's chair hoping that it was as sturdy as most of his constructions, pulled the books closer to him, selected one, and began to read.

Most of what the boy wrote was to be expected, frustrations with some of the other children his age, his crush on the Hofferson girl. The drawings though, Stoic didn't know Hiccup could draw like this, some were of various village people, many were even recognizable, or animals, some were those hideously complicated machines he seemed to enjoy so much, and was always chattering on about, what would you do with a toothed wheel? And strange mathematics that were beyond what he had ever taught the boy. Stoic sighed, wondering what he was even looking for.

All Asgard knew, the boy was smart and creative, but that was all he could see confirmed in the pages here. When all Stoic wanted to know was why he left! Why would the boy side with dragons? What could have possibly happened? And the Hofferson girl! She was always such a Viking! What did these two see that could have escaped every other Viking?

Then Stoic opened the next book, to see a finely detailed drawing of a smallish black dragon with a goofy look on its face and 'Toothless' written in Hiccups neat hand over the top. The information in the little book was unbelievable! All of it was in Hiccup's hand, incredibly detailed drawings and notes, thoughts and possibilities, even arguments with himself about whether to tell 'Dad'.

Stoic didn't know how to process all this information, or what to think about it. His son had found a better friend in a fire breathing beast than he ever had with his peers, and suddenly Stoic found himself doubting.

Stoic was still sitting on Hiccup's sturdy little chair staring at the little book as the sun started peeking through the shutters by the window, and a knock came on the hall door. Stoic slowly made his way down the stairs and to the door to find Gobber looking very solemn.

"You may not want to, but I think you should look at these." With that Gobber held out a stack of books and papers towards Stoic. "Hiccup left a lot behind."

Stoic stood staring for several heartbeats, then nodded. "Here too." He said gruffly, and stood back for Gobber to come through the door. "Time to piece together what happened." Said Stoic gesturing to the table, "Might as well start here."

Gobber didn't think that he had ever heard his battle brother sound so defeated. "Yes, might as well." He agreed.


	6. Chapter 6

AW#6

To my reviewers: Thank you so much for the words of encouragement! I am working to improve my writing, so I welcome concrit and encouragement.

Guest- if you would like to ask questions, please login, as I can't answer anonymous reviews.

To those wondering, after watching Stoic and Gobber, they are going to piece it all together. Neither one of these men is stupid. Stubborn, prone to anger and jumping to conclusions, yes, but not stupid. Both of these men love Hiccup even if they don't understand him. They are both fully aware that Hiccup and Astrid let the training ring dragons loose and then left, (in fear of their lives) so they have a step up from a lot of the Hiccup leaves AU's to figure things out. Hiccup was obviously the type of person who wrote things down, he was a bit panicked in his decision to leave and limited on what he could take, so there are a lot of clues to be pieced together by someone willing to do the piecing.

On another note, I am just realizing that not all my page breaks are showing the way I intended on upload, I will be attempting to remedy that.  
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Hiccup and Astrid, went about their day setting up a camp as best they could, and realizing the limitations of the island they were on. It was too small, while it had both fresh water and vegetation, it didn't appear to have any significant animal life certainly not enough to feed 2 people and 2 dragons for any length of time. They would have to move on, and soon.

"Well, we aren't going to be able to stay here." Hiccup voiced before I had a chance to.

"I know, we need more food and shelter than this island can give us right now." I agreed.

"It's also too close to Berk. I don't know how they are going to handle us, and I am not sure that I want to know. I certainly don't want to experience it." Hiccup closed his eyes and looked a little sick, swallowed thickly and continued. "Dad would brand and exile us at least, if not just out right execute us."

"Seriously?" They didn't still brand people, did they?

"Yes, very seriously. They are going to be sending out letters to the allied tribes as well, so we can't go to them for help either. The unallied tribes are tricky as well, because if they find out who we are they may just kill or torture us dispite our leaving. I'm the heir, and you are the daughter of one of our generals, whats the likely hood they will believe that we have actually left or that we don't know anything?! And that's without the dragons!" Hiccup continued to get more and more wound up as he spoke, rather wildly gesturing. "I have the tribe tattoo! The thing is too big to burn off, and even if I did it would be obvious I had done something of the sort!"

"Tattoo?! What tattoo are you talking about?" I didn't know about tribe tattoos, it would complicate things immensely, if this was the case.

Hiccup sighed "The chief and his heirs are marked as part of the training process." He pulled the collar of his tunic aside to show me part of it on his shoulder. The bluish black ink wound in complicated patterns over his collarbone and looked like it extended well beyond what I could see. "It is meant to mark the ruling family, so not everyone has them. It's pretty unmistakable though, and any chief or general of the neighboring tribes would know I belong to Berk's ruling family on the first washday." Toothless began nuzzling his rider, attempting to comfort him. He looked at me as if he really wanted to blame me for Hiccup's upset, but knew he really couldn't.

"Ok… let's not panic. We can't just go join another tribe, it would be unlikely that we would have been able to anyway, even without that." I tried to comfort him, while at the same time my mind was spinning.

"So… Our options are try to eke out something on an uninhabited island, find the outcasts and hope they don't kill us on sight or demand a ransom, or try to go fight that thing and hope that if we survive that it solves the 'dragon problem'." Hiccup ticked our options off on his fingers, adding his own sarcastic twist to the last statement. "Last, I can take you back." Hiccup looked up at me from his finger ticking, "you can claim I made you or threatened you or something."

I snorted and my biting comeback died on my tongue as I looked at his face. He was serious, and he was trying to do what was best for me. The nadder that I hadn't named yet seemed to sense my consternation and began cooing at me and attempting to groom my hair.

"No, I doubt just one of us can go back. Too many people saw me, and saw that I went willingly." I told him. "I think that we need to find a bigger uninhabited island, see if we can train some more dragons to help us out and then go from there. Maybe if we can get them all working together we can take down that thing on their island."

"Getting more dragons?" Hiccup asked "if only they could all see them like you do, maybe they would if they took the chance." He gave a wry smile. "I don't see it happening while raids are still happening though, and I think they are only raiding because of the queen."

"So we plan, and see if we can train more dragons to work together. Right now though we need to figure out how we are going to survive, winter is coming."

"And we need shelter clothing and food." Hiccup was ticking on his fingers again.

"Some good old fashioned Viking raiding might be in order," I grinned at him.

He looked a little startled and then grinned back. "it just might! So where should we go? South? East? West? I don't think North is a great option."

I nodded in agreement. "South or east seem the best options, that queen is to the west and we know it colder further north."

"So maybe we should head south and see what we find."(1) Hiccup brightened at the prospect "I've always wanted to see what else is out there! There must be other people, like some of the ones Trader Johann is always talking about, the ones that paint their faces and wear dresses?"

"Hmm…" I mused as we went about gathering all the supplies that Hiccup had brought, we couldn't afford to leave any, and doing our best to kick dirt over the fire to smoother it. The nadder very helpfully started digging, sending dirt everywhere, then Toothless thought it looked like fun and joined in the madness. I gave an undignified shriek when a large clump of dirt came flying at my face and decided it was best to get out of the way. Leaving Hiccup and the dragons to it, it wasn't long till the fire was not just out, but buried under a pile of dirt as high as my knee. The nadder came over to me acting like she was asking for approval, so I scratched her chin while telling her "You are a very good overenthusiastic girl, thank you for helping with the fire." She began preening with the praise, obviously very proud of herself, I patted her nose and stroked her horn.

Hiccup was laughing at the dragons antics. "Well, south it is. Shall we go?"

I nodded "Yes, lets." I gave a last pat to the pretty nadder and followed Hiccup to Toothless and began to climb into the saddle.

"Okay bud let's go." And up Toothless went with his strong muscles beating steadily under my thighs.

The nadder gave an indignant squawk and jumped into the air to follow us, Toothless went at an easy pace to let her follow close behind.

"I think that you have yourself a friend." Hiccup said, smiling over his shoulder. "Next time we land we ought to see if she'll let you ride her, it would help Toothless not get as tired."

I nodded against his back as I watched the nadder follow us, a bright blue beacon against the dark ocean below us.

#

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Stoic continued to pour through Hiccups journals, and all the papers that Gobber had brought over from the forge. He knew it wouldn't be long before the exhaustion caught up and he would have to sleep, but for now every new paper he look at held some new piece of the puzzle that was Hiccup.

"I always knew the boy was different, Gobber, I suppose I never quite realized just how different." Stoic finally admitted to his friend.

"Oh, Aye. Different is a good term for it, but have you really looked at some of these plans? He wasn't just designing those crazy weapons of his he was designing new rigging for the sails, a mill that could be either water or wind driven, this pedal driven turner for wood working… at least that's what I think its for. It makes some of the things he has stashed about the forge make more sense."

Stoic nodded and if possible looked more depressed. "Why did he have to leave?"

"He did say he would be back." Gobber told Stoic, placing what he hoped was a comforting hand on his friends shoulder. "We just need to be ready when he does."

"Yes, I should go talk to the Hoffersons. That should be fun. I'm sorry but my son just ran away on a dragon and took your daughter with him, I hope that doesn't offend you."

Gobber looked at Stoic in surprise, sniggered, and then outright laughed, holding his belly and leaning his head on the table. The reaction prompted a small smile out of Stoic, even if it didn't reach his eyes, it was still there and that gave Gobber hope that his friend would be okay. "Well at least we know where the boy gets his sarcasm!" Gobber got one last good jab in as he got up from the table and began stretching his stiff back. "Get some sleep before you go talk to the girls parents at least, you'll do them or yourself no good as you are."

"Alright." Stoic agreed "Yes, sleep would be good."

Gobber got to the door and turned back towards Stoic "If they give you any trouble you could always offer a contract. It would allay any squawking about honor and all that, and the kids are of age."

Stoic looked as if he would fall over contemplating that subject, then shook himself. "Let's cross that bridge when we get there. See you later Gobber."

Gobber gave a little salute and left shutting the door behind him softly, then shook his head and muttered to himself. "He may not want to see that the boy is growing up, but it may be the only way to keep his head on his shoulders if he does come back."(2) Gobber heaved a sigh and started down the hill for his own bed.

I am envisioning that the archipelago that Berk and the Vikings of HTTYD are on the Faroe Islands, and by heading south Hiccup and Astrid are going to end up on the small islands just north of present day Scotland.

Under Icelandic law, which many Vikings seemed to have followed, a girl's family had the right to kill a man if it was deemed he had damaged her virtue. Hence why most marriages were known to take place quickly, less chances of illegitimate children and better chances of men staying alive.


	7. Chapter 7

AW#7

It was a long flight, the sun had set some time ago, and both dragons had slowed noticeably and there still wasn't any land in sight as the darkness set in. The nadder was still following closely. "When do you think we might find land?" I shouted to Hiccup over the wind.

He shrugged, "I don't know, soon, I hope. The dragons are tired!" He shouted back at me. He wasn't paying a lot of attention to me as we were entering a rather large cloud bank and he and Toothless seemed stiff. It crossed my mind that it could be another nest like the other one, I prayed rather fervently that it would not be, I didn't think 2 could exist so close together. I leaned against Hiccup tiredly and hoped that we could find something soon, I was tired, hungry and stiff.

"Up!" Hiccup suddenly yelled. I looked over Hiccup's shoulder as we banked up steeply. There was something large and solid in front of us. Hiccup leaned with Toothless, and I leaned with him. As we pulled up and over the top I realized it was a cliff!

"Land!" I cried gratefully, feeling the relief wash through me at the prospect of being on solid ground again.

"Shh" Hiccup hissed "We need to make sure there aren't people nearby, we have no idea if they might be dragon or stranger friendly."

So we circled up and around. It wasn't a huge island, it was quite mountainous and had some forest and some meadow along the coastline. We didn't see any fire or smell smoke, so it was decided that it was safe to land and we could make a more detailed survey the next day.

We chose a small sheltered cove on the north end of the island and settled in much the way we had the night before except that the nadder clearly wanted me with her. Spending some time tittering in concern, attempting to groom my hair but was frustrated by the fact that it was braided and finally wrapping herself around me protectively. Hiccup spent a lot of that time laughing at me fending off the attentive beast, before settling down with Toothless.

"Ha-ha very funny." I deadpanned at the boy. I sat down gingerly sore after sitting astride a dragon all day, and leaned against the nadder that cuddled up behind me and scratched her gently which seemed to reduce her to a blue heap of groaning, trilling pleasure. I laughed at her and felt the warmth of affection blush through my chest. "I'm going to have to give you a name, aren't I?" I asked her, she perked up at that and looked at me expectantly. "How about Bluebell?" The Nadder shook her head and cackled at me, a definite no. Her reaction made me laugh, "A great big NO to that then, huh girl? Well then what about Stormfly?" I asked. She tilted her head as if considering, then gave a bobbing nod and trilled rubbing her cheek against my shoulder. "It's settled then! Goodnight Stormfly." I smiled, as she settled contentedly against me obviously tired and ready to sleep. I looked at her and then over at Hiccup and Toothless, they already looked to be asleep. The day had been long and tiring, but relatively uneventful. "Let's see what the morning brings." I murmured to myself, then closed my eyes. Sleep came quickly.

Morning came bright and clear, with a crisp bite to the air that said winter was not far off even further south as we were. It was hard to convince Stormfly to stay a decent way back when I was trying to hunt, but she had absolutely mangled the earlier rabbit in her enthusiasm to 'help'. I carefully kept my sigh inside as I watched the rabbits in front of me frolic past my makeshift snare made from my arm wrappings. Finally! One finally went through the snare I gave it a good sharp tug and caught a plump squealing rabbit in the cord snare. I was careful to keep the tension tight as made my way to the rabbit and broke its neck that way the skin was preserved and we were going to need that.

Hiccup was back at the camp after having scouted the island early this morning and confirmed that it seemed currently uninhabited. Though there was an old decrepit shepherd's hunt on the south end that appeared long abandoned. Hiccup thought he had seen a few sheep as well, but hadn't caught any. The wool would be useful if we could shear them though I really had no good idea about how to do that, catching the wooly buggers was all I had helped with on Berk when sheering season was on us. Sheering at this time of year wouldn't be good either, might as well slaughter them than let them freeze. I gathered my cord up carefully and picked up the rabbit I had just caught with the two from earlier that had made it past Stormfly's helpfulness, and called the blue dragon. She popped up out of the underbrush happy that she was to be included again. I patted her and assured her that I wasn't mad and we made our way back to the new camp.

Hiccup had found a cave, it wasn't terribly deep but it would be a nice start he thought and was going about gathering both stone and logs when I had left with Stormfly figuring that it was better I stay out of the way. I was discovering that Stormfly had a sense of humor as we came back into the clearing the boys were working in. I was amazed at what they had gotten done in the time I was gone. Already there was a foundation and walls of stone mostly up along with what looked like a support structure for a roof.

"Hey Hiccup!" I waved at him he looked up from his work briefly and kind of nodded. I shrugged, he was busy I guess. Then I realized something was missing. "Where's Toothless?"

Hiccup looked up at that. "Oh, he's… He's at the meadow getting sod for the roof."

"Sod?!" I asked, how is sod going to make a roof? I thought, puzzled.

"Yeah, so sod works great! We lay these poles across as a support structure and then lay the sod over the top. It's not great for great buckets of rain, but it works well in snow and cold."

I nodded accepting of his explanation, and he looked relived. Just then Toothless burst into the clearing with a large bundle of dirt and grass, dragging behind him.

Toothless looked quite proud of himself and his mission, and I looked at the aforementioned sod. Well, okay I could see that this might work. Toothless had brought most of the root system with it, so the dirt and root layer was a good couple of hand spans.

"It would work better if it was more even." Hiccup said from behind me as he walked up. He gave Toothless praise and scratches, before hefting up the sod to put it on the roof. I looked up from my dealings with the rabbits to see if he needed help, he didn't seem to, I think the blacksmithing gave him more strength than most ever gave him credit for. I finished cleaning the rabbits and gathered some fresh willow branches stripping the bark and using the strips to lash the branches into stretching frames for the skins as they dried and hung the frames now with skins on a couple of convenient branches. Then set the rabbits on the spit over the fire. When they were done I called Hiccup from his work on the sod to come eat, there was the rabbit and some of the late berries that I had found along the way.

"So, are we actually going to train other dragons?" I asked him.

"I don't see why not, though the queen may not have much influence this far south." He reasoned.

I agreed, "Actually I haven't seen any dragons at all. Do they come this far? We are going to have a hard time if we can't find more."

Hiccup took a moment to finish chewing his food and then answered. "I'm pretty sure there are dragons, I saw a couple far off when we made the survey of the island this morning, and also what looked like roosts on those southern cliffs. It may take a little time to draw them out, but they are here."

"We just need to decide if the dragons are the priority or if we are staying here the winter." My mind began to wander to what winter here might be like.

"Well, I don't think winter is as harsh here." Hiccup stated.

I cocked my head at him puzzled, "What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Look at the birds." He pointed up to the tree where there were some small birds hopping around in the branches. "These birds summer in Berk, they had already left, but they are here. So what does that tell you?"

"That this isn't Berk!" I snarked at him.

He grinned at my sarcasm. "Well, yes, but…. If they are still here it means that winter comes much later here at least, which gives us time. We need time to train more dragons, to gather food, and" He gestured to the shelter he was building, "build a shelter. This place may have a much milder winter than Berk, but I don't believe at all that there is no winter."

"Okay, okay! You're right! So shelter and food, and then we find more dragons?" I asked.

"Yeah, because I don't want to die out here, I don't think you do either." He looked at me and I shook my head.

"Of course not! Wouldn't have even made this crazy trek with you if I wasn't interested in surviving!"

Hiccup laughed at that, so did both the dragons. Toothless had a low pitched grumbling laugh, Stormfly cackled just like she had back in the training ring at Snotlout. "Oh great senses of humor you two!" I told them laughing myself. "I knew you were laughing at Snotlout!" I told Stormfly turning to scratch her neck. Hiccup suddenly looked rather guarded which puzzled me a bit, but it must have been the reference to his cousin. It was probably best not to pursue that right now, as we had a lot of work to do.

"Well, I think we should go see if there is anything salvageable from that old shepherds hut. Pretty much anything that we can find right now would be helpful." Hiccup suggested.

"Okay, let's do it." I agreed. So we banked the fire and moved to the dragons. "Will you let me ride you Stormfly?" I asked her, she started prancing and chirping, in what looked like happiness. "Okay, let's try this." I smiled at the dragon, as I grabbed a couple of her spines and hauled myself up. She cackled a bit and looked back at me as if asking if I was ready. "Okay girl, let's go, but not too fast I can only hold on to your spines." She nodded at me and took off, staying low, just over the tops of the trees and level. Hiccup and Toothless blew by with a gust of wind and Stormfly scolded them for their rudeness, I patted her neck and held tight with hands and legs. "It's okay girl, let's go catch them, shall we?" She looked back at me to check and then put on a burst of speed to go catch the boys.

We landed in a meadow next to a small hut that had definitely seen better days. Though didn't look like it was actively falling apart yet. Hiccup was already on the ground beside Toothless and waiting for us when we landed.

"I didn't look inside earlier, wasn't sure just how stabile the place was." He said.

"Well it doesn't look like it will just fall apart, so let's take a look." I said walking over and testing the door. The door was stiff, and creaked loudly as I pushed the latch up.

"A metal latch?!" Hiccup asked surprised, "That seems unusual."

I pushed the door in and was rewarded with more creaking metal. "Metal hinges too, it sounds like."

Hiccup helped me push the door, as the hinges were definitely binding. They gave way with a loud screech that set the dragons to dancing nervously behind us. Hiccup and I looked back at them wondering if this was a bad sign or if it was just the noise, Hiccup shrugged. The open door allowed light in to reveal a simple hut, dirt floor, a small table, a stone firepit in the center of the room with a wrought iron spit over the top, and a grate set on the edge. A bed on one side and a fairly sizable cupboard on the other. I fingered the blankets on the bed, they were of a heavy homespun wool, warm, dusty and slightly moth eaten, but entirely serviceable after a wash. The cupboard was surprising though, a tall wooden things that had been carved and painted. The paint was peeling in spots but the craftsmanship was evident. Inside though, were baskets. Hiccup and I started pulling them down and carrying them outside to look through them in better light. Once we had them all outside we each chose one and started looking with curious dragons peeking over shoulders.

The first one I looked in had sewing supplies, a little wooden box of needles, and a variety of thread on wooden spools, also some homespun woolen yarn, and a drop spindle. Hmm, not something that I was great with, but I suppose if we were actually here for the winter something I could practice with. There was a leather pouch at the bottom under the yarn.

"Hiccup, look at this!" I showed him the contents of the pouch.

"Leather working supplies!" He sounded quite pleased to see the awls and punches.

Another basket had folded lengths of fabric. Just like the blankets on the bed, they were a little moth damaged, but not terrible, and cleaner as they had both the cupboard and the basket to protect them. Then there were some tools, a couple hammers and saws, and some carving knives, even iron nails, and rope. With all the baskets repacked and most coming with us, I took another look in the hut, wanting to strip the bedding haul the table out. There was a box of cooking tools in the shadows behind the table, a couple pots and 2 plates and some various cups and mugs, a knife and spoons.

The box under the bed was more interesting, if less immediately useful. There was a pouch of some kind of foreign coins at the bottom, some folded pieces of parchment that looked to be letters but I couldn't read them. Maybe Hiccup could, there were some folded fine linens, which seemed very out of place here, including what looked like a woman's head scarf, and some other miscellaneous jewelry and some small carvings. I carried it out and put it with the rest of the things we were taking.

"This is going to take a couple trips." Hiccup said looking up from where he was tying baskets to Toothless' saddle. "What's that?" he asked, gesturing to the box in my arms.

"This was under the bed, there's money, and some other interesting things." Hiccup looked intrigued but seemed to decide that he could wait till later. We got everything back to our camp after a couple trips, that rope certainly was useful. Hiccup immediately put the newfound nails to use on the roof, I put many of the baskets in the back of the cave, particularly the ones we wouldn't need immediately. Then hauled the blankets down to the stream to give them a scrub, and hung them on a line strung between the trees to dry. I came back to Stormfly piling up fish next to the fire and squalling at Toothless for grabbing some.

"You know for all the things we did find, I'm surprised there weren't any barrels or salt. You know food preservation things?" I told Hiccup

"We may very well find things later, sometimes people store stuff in caves because of the cold. I'm sure there are more around. Yeah, I get it though. So much was just left, things people would need and then not those." He shrugged as if to say 'Don't ask me I don't understand people.'

"Yeah, I guess." But it left me with an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Stoic steeled himself as he prepared to knock on the Hofferson's door. It should be easy, Hacksaw was one of his generals and they had always had an easy relationship, one of the few that had a cordial relationship with Hiccup. Well at least before 2 days ago, 2 days, was that all the time that had passed? It seemed like a lifetime.

Stoic knocked, after a few moments Inga opened the door.

"Hello there Inga, I need to speak with Hacksaw." She stared at Stoic for a few moments and then bobbed her head, and motioned towards the kitchen. Stoic wondered just how bad this was going to be, Inga was not a quiet woman. Hacksaw was sitting at the kitchen table with a mug in his hands but didn't seem to be drinking from it.

"Hello Stoic, come to talk about the kids have you?" Hacksaw asked. Stoic nodded and sat across from Hacksaw, Inga set a mug in front of him and then moved away.

"Had Astrid said anything to you about the dragons, or Hiccup?" Stoic began, best not to beat around the bush on this one.

"No…. not that I know of." Hacksaw replied.

"Complained to me that he was acting weird, even for Hiccup." Inga suddenly said from by the stove.

Stoic perked up at any news and turned to face her. "Did she say anything else?" He asked eagerly.

"No, just muttered about finding out who was training him. Think that may be that last I saw of her." She sighed and shook her head. "If that boy of yours has hurt her he will have her brothers to answer to!" Inga pronounced sharply. "Not that it will help her reputation any, and I don't suppose you have any solution to that do you!" she bit out caustically.

"I'm sure Hiccup would never hurt her." Stoic pronounced clearly, best not to mention the boy most certainly had feelings for her, if the journals were anything to go by.

"What about the beasts!" Hacksaw asked. "They were letting them go, none seemed inclined to hurt them that was incredibly strange! And that black one! I haven't ever seen one like it!"

Stoic sighed "My son wasn't lying when he said he shot down a Night Fury in the last raid. Instead of killing it when he found it he made friends with it." Both Hacksaw and Inga stared at Stoic with disbelief. "I know" Stoic continued, "but Hiccup kept a very detailed journal that he left behind. Leaving the village was apparently not planned. Or I doubt he would have left us so much information."

Hacksaw leaned across the table towards Stoic. "Could I look at these journals? I wouldn't normally ask, but my daughter is out there, and I want to know why." He looked pained.

Stoic nodded and pulled out the journal. "I figured you would, this is the one with the Night Fury in it."

Hacksaw took it and began looking through it, his eyes widening at some of the drawings. He paused a long time on the ship rigging ideas. "These are good!" Inga smacked his arm "right, right later!" Then he came to the Night Fury pages.

"He crippled it!" Inga gasped "But they flew away on the thing!"

"He built it a prosthetic." Hacksaw answered her "Look at this Inga! This is amazing!"

Inga sat back and crossed her arms. "What's amazing is that you are forgetting about our daughter!" She screeched "Even only being gone 2 days she can't come back with a reputation intact! How long does she have to be gone before you demand justice! What if she comes back with child! What are we going to do then?!"

"Calm down woman!" Hacksaw ground out. "Stoic is an honorable man and our chief! He'll see things done right."

Stoic nodded, sighing internally believing the boy was too young for this, but his hand was forced. Stoic could not afford to so gravely offend one of his generals. "I am prepared to offer you a contract."

Hacksaw nodded looking solemn and Inga looked smug, when Hacksaw noticed this he sent her out with irritation.

Stoic noticed Inga's look. Wonderful, despite his not being not being very vikingly Hiccup was a catch being heir to the chiefdom and only heir to the Haddock clan. Stoic also believed that Hiccup would eventually grow into himself, he looked like his mother and while she had been an awkward youth that had all changed and she had been a beauty when grown. Yes, Astrid and the Hofferson's were going to be the envy of all the maiden daughters and their mothers.

Hacksaw sighed "I'm sorry Stoic, I know this isn't what you wanted for Hiccup, not what I wanted for Astrid either."

"I'm sorry too." I answered him "but Inga is right there isn't really another way to salvage this situation with reputations intact, theirs and both our clans."

Both men nodded with finality. "It's agreed then." Hacksaw held out his hand and Stoic grasped it, sealing the agreement and their children's futures.

"Can I look at more of these plans of Hiccup's?" Hacksaw asked. "Some of these look really amazing and those pulleys would really reduce the fishermen's work load. And the rigging would take time to change but wow!" Stoic smiled at Hacksaw, it gave him a real sense of pride to have someone else recognizing Hiccup's work and talents.


	8. Chapter 8

AW#8

We spent most of the next month preparing food and clothing for the winter ahead. I think that we were lucky winter held off a lot longer than it did on Berk, and we had an extra month of mild weather.

Hiccup had been right about food storage being somewhere else, a cave not far from the little hut we had first discovered. There were several barrels of what was probably salt packed meat and or fish. It was so old that it had all turned into an undiscernible sludge, that even the two dragons seemed skeptical about, however the two gronckles that found us during that time did think a thing about it. Though it is true that gronckles will eat anything, including random rocks, plants and dirt. Hiccup thinks that there must be something they need it what they eat, just like the deer on the bigger islands can be attracted by offering salt. We dumped the barrels of stuff and scrubbed them out for our own use, as the barrels were perfectly good. There had also been a large cauldron, Hiccup had been stumped by it, until I pointed out that it was probably for salt rendering, he had nodded by seemed a little put out the rest of the day by not knowing what it was for. I shook my head at him, in the knowing things department he was generally more versed than I was, but then something like the cauldron would escape him. I personally think it is because he is trying to make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Time passed fairly pleasantly, Hiccup and I got along relatively well, and when we didn't we took our dragons and left for a little bit. There was always something to do, while we had determined that our island was uninhabited, the one to the south of us was not. There were small farms, and skittish people that lived in tiny little stone huts that were built in a row down the center of the farming land. We divided the chores and swapped once in a while so neither would get too bored. It took a little while to get all the chores and necessities of living in close proximity worked out, but we managed. Stormfly and Toothless acted as excellent chaperones, even if we weren't always so exhausted after a full day's work. Both of us had come to the realization of why Vikings live in villages, it meant less work!

I was just lighting the fire in the hut as Hiccup opened the door and Toothless followed close behind. I shivered as he let a gust of cold wind in and the fire guttered against the wind.

"Did you get the gronckles in the shelter?" I asked him.

Hiccup nodded "Yeah, hopefully they will stay put this time." There was a pause as he looked a bit pensive. "I think it's going to snow tonight. Or there is some kind of storm coming, snow would be easiest for us right now."

I sighed "I thought so too, I hope the wind stays down, that's it… whatever else we can deal with."

I put another log on the fire as it recovered from the wind and started to grow a bit. Then set the grate on the side and set the small pot of stew on it to warm.

"We've enough food, water and wood to last a few days." I assured him "We'll be okay."

Hiccup nodded, then pulled out one of his journals and a stick of charcoal and started working on something. A drawing or an idea for some creation, I didn't know, and I had found it better if I didn't push. Hiccup was definitely used to his privacy. An only child of the tribes' chief, he was definitely used to privileges that many of the rest of us had never gotten, the most frustrating part was he didn't seem to have any comprehension of how spoilt he was.

I had discovered that the local sheep on the island were a type that didn't need to be sheared, they shed their wool. I had discovered it when Stormfly began bringing me great heaps of it. I didn't think it was as fine as the wool from home, but it was nice nonetheless, and I made great use of it for bedding, and other uses. I imagined it was lining a great number of birds' nests on this island, but otherwise was going to waste. I had seen about 10 of the sheep in my exploration of the island, so wool was in plenty. I would look next time I saw them if there was more than one ram, if so, some thinning may be in order. Mutton I didn't care for so much, but lamb! Mmm….. my mouth watered just thinking about it. I wiped my chin just to make sure Hiccup didn't notice. Nope, he was involved with his book, good. I sighed and sat back against Stormfly with the scavenged drop spindle in my hands, continuing to work the wool that Stormfly had brought me, thinking about my family and what they might be doing. I hoped they weren't worrying too much, I hoped they knew that I could take care of myself… well, mostly. I had to admit that after a full month I was awfully glad to have Hiccup and the dragons there, because if I was completely honest I don't know how I would do completely on my own. Survive, I guess I probably would…come out sane, now that was the question! After some more mindless work and staring at the fire I realized something, I was glad to be here! There was something about this life that touched who I was, I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to dig into it…nope not ready.

"Would you like me to make you a spinning wheel?" I dropped my spindle, and fumbled for it. Hiccup's question caught me by surprise.

"No… well, I don't really have that much to spin right now. I used most of it for the beds, this is just something to do for now."

He nodded "Okay, just have some ideas on how to make a better one is all." He sounded pensive.

I grinned to myself, suddenly realizing that he wanted something to do. "By all means, if you want to make one go ahead, I'm sure Stormfly can find another stash of wool somewhere. Those sheep leave it everywhere!"

His face lit up. "Okay then!" He went back to sketching with much more enthusiasm.

I watched him work from the other side of the fire, and was torn by the emotions flowing through me. Hiccup desperately sought approval, from someone, anyone, yet seemed so surprised to actually get it even in the minutest quantities. Hiccup was an intensely private person as well. He was always known as the village screw-up, but how much of that was trying to impress his dad, or Gobber, or it seemed, me. The heartbreaking thing was, most of his ideas worked, and worked well! I had seen a lot of them put to use on our little island in the past month. I sat contemplating this as the wind buffeted our little hut and Stormfly snuggled against my back.

Another month went by and more dragons had found us. We now had a nightmare, 2 zipplebacks, and 3 nadders to add to our little flock. Hiccup had stayed busy trying to keep up on shelters for them all. Thankfully we had found a rather large cave on the south side of the island that fit all the dragons with room for more. The weather had stayed rather mild by Berk standards at least, there was some snow, but the wind mostly swept it away and the ice on the sea was spotty. I had found one of the smaller caves had a spring in the back that didn't freeze, and that was a life saver when the creek froze and there was little snow to melt for drinking water.

Hiccup had built that spinning wheel, though I really wasn't sure how when we had so few tools, but he managed just the same. Sure enough Stormfly found more wool. She soon had some of our newer dragon friends in on it, and we had piles and piles of wool. I wondered if they were pillaging some farmers shed for it, as much of it was soft and clean. I shrugged it off, it wasn't as if I could do much about it, the thought of dragons raiding some farmer for wool made me laugh though, made Stormfly laugh too. The wool and the clothing that we turned it into was much needed, who knew that Hiccup would know how to knit and weave, he was better at it than I was, but didn't like the spinning. So I spun and he wove or knitted a lot of those cold quiet evenings by the fire curled up with Toothless and Stormfly.

I was finding that the different dragon types had different personalities, which I found fascinating. Aside from Toothless, I think that the gronckles were the most affectionate, actively seeking out physical attention from people and other dragons. Toothless didn't seem to mind share some of Hiccups attention but got a little possessive when he thought it was too much. Of course Hiccup was almost all the dragons favorite, which sometimes threw Toothless into a bit of a snit.

With the new dragons we were beginning to put a plan together for attempting to take the queen down.

"We definitely have to get her out of that mountain" I told Hiccup "there is no getting at her at all otherwise."

He nodded. "I know, but how do we do that? Bait?" Hiccup gestured at himself and at me," I don't think we are going to be enough to coax her out. So what? We start raiding villages ourselves?!"

"No… but what if we team up with Vikings?" I asked. "Berk has every reason to want to be rid of the raids. What if we were able to present a plan to do that?"

"You think they would listen? To me? Astrid we just flew off on a dragon in front of a bunch of people, including my Dad. What makes you think that they haven't declared us Outcast?!" Hiccup's voice was rising with each statement. "Or traitors! They may just kill us on sight and ask questions later! Do you want to take that risk Astrid? Because I don't!"

I stared at him. "You…. Don't? But…. But its home! Our parents are there!" This was crashing down around my head spectacularly, "We end the raids and go home! Wasn't that the plan?" I was upset! Justifiably so!

"I don't know! I don't want any more people to get hurt, but you saw my Dad! How can I go back to that?! He was sooo angry Astrid…. I just… I just don't know, alright!" Hiccup turned away from me clearly wanting to end the conversation, but there wasn't anywhere to go. Toothless nuzzled him comfortingly, and warbled. I wasn't sure if it was at me or Hiccup.

I began forming a plan. If Hiccup wouldn't go ask for help, fine. It didn't mean I couldn't. So I resolved that when the weather broke I was going to go home and ask for help, with or without Hiccup.

*

*  
Gobber heaved a sigh as he finished up the sharpening, 2 months had gone by and he found himself missing Hiccup greatly. He missed all the boys chattering on and always being there to help him change his hands. Even all the annoying traits that he'd always hated, he found himself missing.

"Bahh" Phil the sheep bleated at him, waking him from his reverie.

"Oh, Phil, what are you on about eh?"

"Baahh"

Gobber found himself nodding at the sheep as if he understood.

"Talking with the livestock now?" A voice from the doorway made Gobber jump and nearly knock the hammer off the anvil. He turned to find Hawksaw Hofferson in the door.

"Oh, Eh…. What can I do for you Hacksaw?"

Hawksaw smiled knowingly, but let it go. "I was just here to check on those pieces for my pulleys."

"Oh, Aye, I have them here." Gobber started over to the bench that had all the finished orders on in, and checked the baskets to make sure he had the correct one. "Where did you get the idea for these?" Gobber asked, "I forgot to ask before."

Hacksaw seemed to hesitate. "They are one of Hiccup's designs. Stoic showed me some of his stuff, these are going to be great work savers!" Hacksaw sounded like he wanted to be more enthusiastic than he was being, but felt cautious around Gobber.

Gobber nodded, he was torn, he wanted to be proud of Hiccup and upset that they were using his work without his permission. "Hiccup always liked to help, tis what got him into so much trouble around here." Where the words Gobber finally settled on.

"Aye" Hacksaw agreed.

"I heard that Stoic drew up a contract with you." Gobber ventured "Who do you think will be first on Astrid's kill list when she learns of that one?" Gobber attempted some levity to soften the question.

"Yes, Inga's over the moon about it." Hacksaw sighed, and then smiled half-heartedly. "I'll tell her it was her mother's idea, let the womenfolk sort it for themselves."

Gobber nodded and they exchanged the goods and payment as arranged. Gobber watched Hacksaw walk towards the docks thoughtfully. The man seemed convinced that Astrid would be back, it stood to reason that if Astrid came back that Hiccup would come back as well. However Gobber couldn't stop the little niggling doubt in the back of his head that told him, yes Hiccup was brave enough in his own way direct conflict was something the boy tended to shy away from. Stoic's reaction to Hiccup in the kill ring the last time he had seen him didn't bode well for the boy coming back. Hiccup had always depended on his father's love and acceptance. Gobber had seen the boy's face when Stoic had rushed him, the look on his face had been utterly heartbroken.


	9. Chapter 9

AW#9

It had been a long quiet winter, Stoic thought to himself as he stepped out his door, on his way to the village square. It was the first day that truly felt like spring. He heaved a deep breath of the clean spring air and wondered to himself what Hiccup was doing, and most of all, if he would be back like he said. The dragon raids had been sparse that winter, he wondered if he had Hiccup to thank for that. Because the raids had been so light there had been plenty of food and little sickness that winter, so in that respect the village was thriving. There had been several babes born in the last months of winter and they had all survived, that alone was a feat to be celebrated.

Stoic would feel better celebrating if he knew how his son fared.

Today really felt like spring! I thought to myself as I stretched in the sun surrounded by dragons. The warmth of the day certainly made them more active, and hungry Hiccup had complained. I snickered at his complaining, as I noticed it had seemed to make him hungrier too… well it was about time that boy had a growth spurt.

We now had a good 20 dragons on the island now, and Hiccup and I had started planning an attack against the Queen in earnest. We had a number of different kinds of dragons and had found that a number of them were incredibly destructive teams, the nadders and changewings for example, who knew acid was so explosive? Hiccup apparently did… he had muttered something about a forge accident and been unwilling to say much else, I was guessing that it might have something to do with the scars on his arm.

Training the dragons was a good distraction, I missed my family, even my 3 older brothers who were complete jerks most of the time. I missed mom and dad, and even my sister-in-laws, whom I hadn't really ever gotten along with before.

The winter had passed mostly peacefully, there was some tension between myself and Hiccup. Not that Stormfly would let us alone long enough to explore said tensions, which was probably for the best even if it was very annoying. Two teenagers locked in a small space together, even if it was out of necessity was hard.

'Dragons!' I told myself 'let's just concentrate on the dragons!' It was better if I didn't drift off on to other things right now, I had a job to do.

"I don't want to go back." Hiccup told me one night. "I want to explore the world, see what's out there!"

I stared at him for a few moments, then came to sit next to him on the rock that he had been watching the dragons from.

"The whole goal of this is killing the queen so the dragons don't raid Berk anymore, so how do you not go back?" I was trying to be calm, this was a conversation that had popped up several times over the winter. It was a conversation that made me feel anxious, like Hiccup would just be gone one morning and I would be on my own with the dragons. Which didn't necessarily scare me per se, but he was far better with them than I was and we certainly needed Toothless to take the queen down. I didn't think the plan would work without Hiccup and Toothless.

"Yeah, I know. I'll help with that… I'm just not going to go back to Berk, at least not yet." He made an odd gesture out towards the sea. "I want to see what out there Astrid. I know there is more than just the tribes that we know about. I want to see the things that Trader Johan talks about, the people with the dark skin, the people that paint themselves blue! I want to not just hear about these things, I want to see them!" Hiccup seemed to deflate suddenly and lose his bravado.

"But… you do want to come back one day?" I asked him hopefully, laying on hand on top of his to help calm his nervous jittering. Stormfly was on instant alert and chirring at me disapprovingly, I ignored her and she settled closer and watched us suspiciously.

"Well, yeah… at least I think so." He turned towards me and put his other hand on top of mine which made my heart jump, and Stormfly to increase her chirring. "Someday"

"How long is someday?" I asked with a little trepidation, forcing a wan smile at him "I won't wait forever you know."

Hiccup looked like he might choke and I laughed at his expression. "Really?!" he asked with a squeak to his voice.

I didn't answer verbally, just leaned forward and kissed his cheek gently. Then moved away before Stormfly decided to be more insistent. "Don't make it too long." I walked away leaving him to think, and giving myself space to do the same. As long as Stoic didn't exile me, I fully planned to go back to Berk, and I missed my family, and ultimately felt that was where I belonged. Finding the answer to peace with dragons was of the utmost importance right now, but when it was done I refused to be left without a plan.

Hiccup was not certain that his father would accept him back, which was a large portion of his insecurity, or would forgive him for befriending the dragons. It almost seemed ironic that I felt I knew our Chief better than his own son did. Stoic got angry and blew up at times, but loved his family beyond everything else, and would forgive almost anything given time. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if his wife hadn't died, and Hiccup had ended up with siblings. Hiccup would still have been under pressure as the heir, but somehow I think that Stoic would never had smothered him so much if he had others to love. Taking care of the village was not the same as family.

It was time. The weather was warm and the dragons were as trained as we could get them without more riders. I was nervous, as I hauled myself into Stormfly's saddle and my palms were slippery with nervous sweat.

"Let's go!" Hiccup shouted, and all the dragons launched into the sky after him. I nudged Stormfly, and she joined the crowd in the sky and we began our trek to the dragons nest.

Even though the weather was warm, I was glad that I had bundled up in warmer clothes, because now it was cold. The wind was biting and the moisture from the clouds was slowly soaking my hair, I huddled down closer to Stormfly's back. The heat of her was comforting.

We flew for hours before I could see the archipelago that Berk was part of, we skirted the edge and landed on one of the small outlying islands to rest for a few hours before making the final push to the nest.

"Well, we are almost there." Hiccup said seriously "If you have any doubts now's the last chance."

I smiled at him, he was trying to give me a way out. "I'm not turning back now, this is the only way to be able to have peace at home. This is the only way we can go back, and I want to go back Hiccup." I told him with determination.

He studied my face with an intensity that made me a bit unsettled, so I looked away and started fiddling with the saddlebags on Stormfly. "Promise me that you'll get out… If something happens, if this doesn't go the way we planned, get out Astrid. Go back to Berk and defend it if you need, but promise me you'll get out." Hiccup spoke in a low voice, with an intensity that I hadn't seen before. A sudden suspicion lit in my mind.

"What are you planning?"

"I'm going to end this one way or another Astrid! Promise me you'll get out if it goes wrong!"

I physically reeled back from him. "You can't…"

"If that's what it takes, I will!" Hiccup interrupted me. "You want to go home, I can't. Dad won't accept me, and I won't join the Outcasts." He was suddenly quiet and still.

"That's not true Hiccup!" I screeched at him. "Your Dad loves you!"

Hiccup stiffened "He loves the idea of what I could be, he doesn't even know me." He practically growled. "We better get going, I want to be there before dark."

As we got ready for the last leg of the journey my mind churned along with my belly. Hiccup was planning on dying, or most probably. After the last winter together that hit me like a slap. We had talked about so many plans and ideas for the future, that it could turn so suddenly was heartbreaking to me.


	10. Chapter 10

AW#10

The mountain loomed up in front of us, jagged and forbidding. Even from the air I could hear the dragons chirring from inside the mountain. It sounded like a warning, they knew we were coming!

Well really we sound have expected that, how could I not, after living with them an entire winter. Dragons were smart, at least over all. Some seemed about the same level as a dog, while others I thought could give people a run for their money, like Toothless for example.

A cloud of dragons burst from all the nooks and crannies of the mountain, like a flock of birds. I was just like that night months ago when all of this got started, they were fleeing. Which meant that the queen was coming. My stomach churned at the thought. 'Get it together Astrid, you can do this'. The dragons from the mountain continued flying, they didn't even really pay attention to us at all.

I watched Hiccup and Toothless wing their way up to the peak of the mountain. 'come on Hiccup, that thing is going to be coming out of that.' I called the rest of the dragons back with me, wanting to keep a little distance from the rocks that were sure to come showering when the thing burst out. The black blur that was Hiccup and Toothless was now circling the peak of the mountain, and that made me so very nervous.

The burst of smoke, flame and pulverized rock exploded from the mountains side, just below me and I saw the giant head begin to take shape from out of the cloud. I could vaguely hear Hiccup screaming something, but couldn't understand what.

A blue bolt of Toothless' flames hit the monster in the head….'Ahh, so that was it.' I signaled the dragons with me to attack. The thing roared as it was hit in the head by multiple dragons flames all at one time, the blast of the lone thunderdrum that had joined our motley gang seemed to cause a lot of confusion to the monster. It cause a good deal for some of the other dragons as well. The Gronckles in particular seemed very sensitive to the noisy blasts, but mostly as long as they stayed out of the direct blast most were okay.

The creature roared its displeasure, and reared up through the side of the mountain snapping at anything that might be close. Toothless hit it several more times while I led the changewings and other nadders in together to spray the flaming acid at its face, trying to pull up in time to avoid snapping giant jaws and the resulting explosions of acid and flame. The gronckles spit their lava like flames on the top of the monsters head some of it hit where the acid was still burning, and there were some new explosions where the lava hit unburned acid.

The stench was awful, it smelled like burning hair and gave off an acrid smelling smoke, which made my eyes sting. I didn't know that dragon skin could burn!

The thing continued roaring and was now spewing a noxious flame at everything as it stretched rock encrusted wings out and rose into the air to chase its tormentors. Most of the dragons fled at that point, taking off into the sea stacks for their meager protection. Toothless continued firing at it and the monster seemed to decide that he was the biggest threat. Stormfly was hesitant, obviously wanting to help Toothless, but being quickly outstripped in speed.

"Up Up Up Stormfly, we can hide in the clouds and try an ambush from there." I patted the beautiful blue scales under me while Stormfly chirred at the remaining dragons. There were 6 dragons still following, I was happy to count 2 changewings in that number, they just might give us the explosive power that we needed.

I could see the monster of course, but couldn't see Toothless and Hiccup and looked desperately to find them coming under us.

"Perfect! Come on guys, aim for the wings as she comes under!" The dragons didn't really respond as all their attention was on the huge monster heading our way, even if they hadn't heard they seemed to have the same idea as I did, wait until the monster was under us and then pour everything we had on it. "Go!" I screamed, trying to encourage all the dragons to scatter before the queen knew where we were. Hiccup seemed to have spotted us and was coming back around, while the monster thrashed in pain, and added Toothless' flames to the explosions as the rest of the dragons scattered.

The monster was struggling to keep in the air, its wings were on fire! It was angry though, and I could see it inhaling to flame some more. Fear gripped me as I realized that Stormfly and I were in range. "Up, higher!" I yelled, as Stormfly seemed to have the same realization and began squawking in panic, she listened, thankfully. I looked back to see Hiccup flying towards the things face!

"Hiccup! No!" I felt my heart in my throat! I couldn't breathe!

Toothless fired right into the things mouth igniting all the gas that was building in its throat. The small black streak that was Hiccup and Toothless skipped by the teeth and disappeared to the other side of the things head.

The monster was panicking and thrashing. I saw its entire body expand from the gas exploding inside it. It gave a groan and tried to extend its wings to slow itself down. The wings that had been burning all this time gave way under the extra strain.

The explosion was huge.

Stormfly and I were buffeted by the wind created by the explosion. It was hard to stay on Stormfly's back much less keep my orientation straight, so I just lay against Stormfly's back and held on as tightly as I could, while praying to the Gods that we would all survive this.

*

*  
I think that I must have passed out. I am on the ground with my face pressed against the rocks and something sharp against my shoulder. I slowly push myself up, feeling the stiffness and heaviness that came from laying in one awkward position for too long. It was grey and smoky all around me and I dizzily wondered where Stormfly was.

"Stormfly?!" I called into the murk. "Stormfly! Where are you?"

I heard some shuffling near by, and suddenly wondered if it was wise to be announcing my presence. Despite most dragons being quiet friendly when not under the influence of the queen, not all were, and some were outright vicious, though not many, I doubted there would be any people close by.

Stormfly's distinctive blue scales and spiked fringe materialized out of the smoke and I felt my stomach unclench in relief. "Stormfly!" I cried joyfully running to her. "Do you know where Hiccup and Toothless are at?" Stormfly tilted her head and chuffed at me uncertainly, she seemed nervous.

Stormfly turned and started walking into the smoke, and looking back at me expectantly. Not knowing what else to do I followed her. What I thought was smoke, was not, or at least not just, it was also fog. I wiped my face when the droplets started dripping from my hair to find that the water wiped away was pink, which made me shudder in revulsion. "Liquid dragon guts in my face… fantastic!" I muttered to myself sarcastically, and turned my attention back to following Stormfly and making sure I didn't breathe through my mouth.

There were some dark shapes looming in the fog ahead of me that turned out to be a group of our dragons from the Island. I smiled to see some of the familiar faces and gave several affectionate scratches as I move though the group. My happiness at seeing my dragon friends was immediately dulled when I realized what they were in fact guarding.

Toothless was wrapped around Hiccup very protectively, and Hiccup appeared to be unconscious, at least I hoped so. As I got closer and knelt next to him I could see that he was still breathing, even if it was shallow and irregular. I couldn't help but gasp and fight the urge to vomit when Toothless unwrapped his wings. Hiccup's left leg was a bloody mess, and I had little doubt that he would keep it, and certainly not under my care. There was a large bruise on his face and surmised that something in the explosion hit him and he fell off of Toothless… The poor dragon was crooning at me, and I recognized the dragon form of guilt on his face.

"Oh Toothless… you tried to catch him didn't you?" I asked rubbing a hand over his snout in an attempt at comfort. Toothless warbled a reply that I took to be a yes.

The first step had to be getting the bleeding to stop, and then I was going to take him to Berk. Getting there with a dragon that couldn't fly and a severely injured Hiccup was going to be hard.

I swallowed hard as I tightened the belt another notch around Hiccup's leg, and wrapped another blanket around him. I was going to fly with Hiccup on Stormfly, a nightmare I called Jorma was giving Toothless a ride on her back, he looked rather disgruntled about the whole thing, she seemed quite pleased.

I was leading us back to Berk. I had told Hiccup that I wanted to go home, this is not the way I wanted it to happen. I held Hiccup tighter and tried halfheartedly to convince myself that the stinging in my eyes was just the wind.


	11. Chapter 11

AW#11

It was dark when we got to Berk, which was probably just as well, it made us harder to spot. I sent most of the dragons to the cove hoping that they would be safe. Jorma refused on Toothless' pestering, they followed my directions to Gothi's house. Thankfully Gothi enjoyed the view from her house on the peak and had also pestered Stoic into building a fairly large deck of sorts off one side. I only hoped that it was sturdy enough to support 3 dragons, because I knew that neither Toothless or Stormfly would leave willingly, I doubted Jorma would either.

Thankfully the Vikings of Berk believed in sturdy and while the platform creaked a bit it seemed to be solid enough, if a bit cramped. I carefully climbed down, stiff from too long in one position and trying to hold Hiccup all that time, my shoulders were extra stiff. I laid him down as carefully as I could, wishing for the first time that he hadn't had such growth spurt this winter, he hadn't hidden his delight at finally being taller than me even if it meant all the extra sewing.

My hand was shaking as I lifted it to knock on the door, and my legs were as well. I took a deep breath and knocked. It seemed like forever before the door opened.

The look on Gothi's face was irritation that melted into pure shock.

"Gothi please! Hiccup's hurt! We found the nest and killed the Queen but he's hurt!" I babbled in panic. Gothi held her hand up to stop my rambling, and pushed past me to see Hiccup. She hesitated at seeing the dragons, I grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "They won't hurt you, Gothi please he needs help." She looked at them and me for a moment and then nodded, before beginning her exam.

"Help me get him in the house girl, and then go get your mother." Gothi said in her horse voice, numbly I wondered how long it had been since she had spoken, and followed her instructions. Toothless tried to follow crooning worriedly.

"Toothless, you have to stay here. Do what Gothi tells you." Gothi's head snapped up at that. "They are quite smart and capable of helping, just ask them. This is Toothless, Stormfly, and Jorma." I introduced them in turn, and then turned and ran towards the steps to the village. It was a long way and seemed to take forever to get down them, I then increased my speed to my parents' house. Shoving down my nervousness and burst through the door.

Everyone was gathered around the fire in the center of the house, all talk ceased as they stared at me. "Mom! Mom! Gothi needs you!" I stepped forward, when she didn't move. "Come on Mom! Hiccup's hurt!" That seemed to spur some action.

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad, I was able to stop the bleeding enough to get him here."

"Go get Phlegma girl." I nodded and pelted out the door to Phlegma's house. I heard all my brothers start asking questions as I left, I ignored them, there wasn't time.

Phlegma's house was quiet when I got there, I didn't burst in as dramaticly. I knocked briefly and then opened the door calling her name. Phlegma stepped out of the back store room to stop and stare in a little bit of shock.

"You came back then?" She asked archly.

"Mom said to get you. We found the nest and killed the Queen, but Hiccup's really hurt. He's up at Gothi's." Phlegma stared for a few heartbeats more, and then nodded. I turned away.

"The village will be glad to have you back you know. Especially if you ended the dragons."

"We didn't end all the dragons." I sighed "Just the Queen. She had some kind of mind control on them and feeding her was why they raided us. We trained a bunch of dragons to help us over the winter."

Phlegma didn't say anything more but gathered her things and we hurried along up the stairs to Gothi's house. Phlegma and my mother stopped and stood stock still at the sight of the 3 dragons, outside Gothi's door. I pushed the 2 women forward with a quick, "they won't hurt you" and hurried to Gothi's side.

Gothi looked up. "Those beasties of yours are useful. The black one is his?" She asked indicating Hiccup.

"Yes, Toothless."

"I'll be getting the full story from you later." She said to me seriously. "Wait outside Astrid, keep the beasts calm. You don't want to see this."

"You have to take his leg?" I asked, already knowing the answer. I nodded at her and fought the tears, I couldn't help it even though I had already known. I went outside to sit with the dragons.

Toothless was distraught, and kept moaning with his head in my lap. Stormfly was behind me, and was alternating between grooming me and Toothless in an attempt at comfort. Jorma wrapped herself around the lot of us in a giant dragon hug.

"He'll be okay Toothless, it will just take time. He will have to heal, but at least he's alive and I think you for that." It seemed a small comfort to Toothless, as he continued moaning.

I closed my eyes leaning my head back against Stormfly's side and unsuccessfully tried not to cry.

I woke to someone poking me, and opened my eyes to Gothi poking me with her stick. "He'll live, as long as the wound doesn't fester." She told me matter of factly. "Come inside and tell us what happened." It wasn't a request.

I untangled myself from the dragons and scratched Toothless' sleep spot when he wouldn't let me go. Gothi watched with interest, but didn't say anything further as I untangled myself from the dragons and came into the house. No one protested as I went to Hiccup first trying to assure myself that he was still alive and trying not to look at his leg. His shoulders were bare just above the edge of the blanket, and I shifted uncomfortably to realize that he was probably naked under the blanket. It made cleanliness easier, but it made me uncomfortable.

"Well daughter, what happened?" My mother asked, she was trying to be gentle I could see, but there was an edge of anger there I just didn't know who it was directed at.

"Where should I start?"

"From the beginning, is always best." Gothi said with a smile.

Phlegma and mom nodded.

"Well I suppose it all began when Hiccup actually did shoot down a night fury, when he found Toothless he couldn't kill him and let him go instead. He didn't realize at the time that Toothless had been injured and could no longer fly independently, so he was trapped. Hiccup fed him and gradually made friends, as that happened he learned so much about dragons that he started beating me in Dragon training. That made me mad and I was determined to find out how he was doing it and followed him one night. We fought and I was going to go back to the village to tell the Chief when he and Toothless kidnapped me. He said he wanted to show me what dragons were really like, and they are amazing! They are smart and pretty gentle when they are away from that Queen."

"This is not the first time I've heard you mention a Queen, what does that mean?" Gothi asked

"Well, we found the dragons' island, and the Queen was monstrous and the dragons weren't raiding to feed themselves, it was like they were offering sacrifices so they wouldn't be eaten themselves. The thing almost ate us! It was kind of like a bee hive but she seemed to have a mind control on them, because the dragons were completely different when they were out of her range. Hiccup and I started talking after we had got away and decided that we needed to buy time to figure out what to do, but we knew for sure that he couldn't kill the nightmare. If we told the Chief he would launch an attack and it would probably kill half the village. So we decided to let the kill ring dragons loose hoping to buy time, but got caught. Fleeing was plan if we got caught, and the Chief was really scary that night."

"He was very angry initially." My mother said "He calmed down quickly though and has sunk into a fog since then. He will be heartbroken by the state Hiccup is in now, though I dare say impressed by how much the boy has grown." She laughed and the others joined in.

"You should have seen how much he's been eating, it's like trying to keep a dragon fed." I could feel myself smiling at the thought.

"Well, go on girl." Phlegma prodded.

"We ended up on an Island about a days flight south. Maybe a week or so with ships, it's warmer there, greener and not so many trees. The Island we were on there weren't any people, but some of them near by did. We found stuff to survive on and found more dragons, we trained them to work together so we could attack the Queen. When the weather warmed and we felt the dragons were trained enough we attacked the nest. We did manage to kill the Queen, but as you see Hiccup got hurt badly."

There was silence for a few heartbeats. The wounds on his leg were made by dragon teeth." Gothi stated seriously. "How can we actually accept that they are safe."

I took a deep breath. "Toothless…. The night fury." I explained pointing at him when they gave me a blank look. "They were really close to the Queen, fired into her mouth when she was getting ready to fire them… to put it bluntly she exploded. Hiccup fell off and Toothless did what he could to save him from the fire. Dragons don't have thumbs you know." I was trying to add some humor to hide my tears, the other women could see through it though. "Toothless is feeling really guilty too, you saw his reactions right, he's like a clingy little child that's made a mistake and is worried that we won't forgive him."

Phlegma stood and stretched, "We are going to have to talk to Stoic, best sooner rather than later too."

"I have some things to tell you as well." My mother told me. "You know that you couldn't run off with a boy without consequences right?" She asked in an exacerbated tone.

I looked down and felt, my stomach tighten. "What consequences are we talking about Mom?"

"Betrothal… Stoic offer us a contract, we accepted it."

I blinked for a few moments at her. "I'm betrothed?... To Hiccup right?"

She snorted a laugh. "Of course to Hiccup."

I felt very hesitant, and took a deep breath. "You know dragons are excellent chaperones, or at least Stormfly is. She was very protective of me, there was nothing that happened that shouldn't have."

"Hmm…" Was all my mom had to say. Phlegma just looked at me speculatively and Gothi was trying not to laugh.

"Leave the girl be Inga, she wouldn't be dancing around embarrassed so badly if she and Hiccup were actually involved in that way." Gothi practically snickered.

Oh gods, I could feel my face flaming, and was rather irritated with their poking fun at me. I crossed my arms and huffed. It just made the older women laugh.

After checking on Hiccup again admonishing the dragons to behave and stay out of sight as much as possible, Mom and Phlegma cajoled me into going to see Stoic.

"Better now when we can reasonably talk to him alone than in a few hours and have the whole village up to raise a ruckus about the dragons."

"Do you think that I have any chance at sleep tonight? Sleep would be really nice." I mumbled kind of half heartedly.

Mom smiled at me and Phlegma patted my back "After we talk to Stoic, then you can get some sleep."

I nodded as we trudged across the village in the early morning light. Oh Gods I think that I last slept a full day ago, before the battle, before the flight to Berk, before getting Hiccup to Gothi. It seemed like a lifetime, and a breath at the same time.

Phlegma knocked on Stoic's door, hard. Then she just opened the door and walked in yelling for him. I flinched at the volume of her voice. There was a huge bang from the back of the house, and then Stoic burst through a door in the back of the house yelling for Gobber. He came to a dead stop when he saw us.

"Astrid?" His voice cracked. "Where's Hiccup? Is he alright?"

I struggled to try and smile. "Well… He… he's with Gothi right now, he's hurt pretty badly."

Stoic wilted visibly, I didn't think it was possible for such a large man to do so. Mom stepped in then.

"Sit down Stoic, you can't see the boy yet anyway and Astrid's tale is an interesting one to say the least. I'll make tea."

Stoic sat heavily on the bench by the table. "Well tell me."

I sat next to him. "We found the dragon's nest. They had a Queen, kind of like a queen bee I guess and she was controlling the other dragons making them feed her. We spent the winter training other dragons and we attacked and killed the queen….. yesterday, I guess. Wow." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, not wanting to see Stoics face as I told the rest. "Hiccup and Toothless were really close to the queen…. She was huge, I mean really huge. They fired right into her mouth as she was getting ready to fire them, ignited all the gas inside her, and she exploded."

"Exploded?!" Stoic looked shocked.

"Exploded." I nodded and gave a wry smile. "Turns out they aren't very fire proof on the inside." I laughed just a little at that. Stoic stared at me with an incredulous look.

"Well… I suppose Hiccup's sense of humor is rubbing off on you."

"You spend a winter on an island where all you do is train dragons and talk to Hiccup and see how unscathed you come out."

There was a genuine laugh out of Stoic.

"The explosion was huge, I don't remember much of it, but Hiccup was so close. He was knocked out or something. Anyway he fell off of Toothless, and Toothless trying to save him from the fire grabbed what he could and wrapped him in his wings. What Toothless managed to grab was his left foot." I looked at Stoic solemnly "Dragons don't have thumbs."

"Hiccup was bitten?" Stoic look torn, between anger and heartbreak.

"I'm already going to be dealing with one enormous guilty toddler, I don't need to deal with you feeling guilty as well." That was a horrible thought, both Toothless and Stoic guilty whining messes, Toothless over hurting Hiccup, and Stoic over driving him away. My vision was fuzzy with exhaustion by this point and I could feel the heaviness in my limbs, the weight of the day, of the last 2 days really.

"I am really, really tired, can we talk more later? I am happy to answer questions, but right now I feel like I am going to melt." I told them. "No one is going kill dragons right? You have to tell everyone not to kill dragons. They won't hurt anyone."

Stoic looked at me appraisingly. "I can't tell my people not to defend themselves."

I nodded knowing that was probably the best that I was going to get. I got up and started for the door, my mom followed me while Phlegma stayed behind.

"Come daughter lets get you to bed." Mom patted me on the back.

"I've missed you Mom." I leaned against her as we walked, taking comfort from her, and fighting a weird urge to cry. She must have sensed my insecurity.

"It will be okay Astrid, he'll heal, and it will be okay."

I could only nod as she guided me in to the house and to a bed in the back. "Sleep daughter, it will look better in the morning."

I could only hope that she was right as I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Maybe it would all seem more manageable without this exhaustion weighing me down. Melding the dragons with the Vikings was going to be difficult, even more so without proof that anything had actually changed other than my word and an injured boy in Gothi's hut on top of the hill. I could only hope that Hiccup would heal quickly and would consent to stay, that is injury wouldn't drive him away.


	12. Chapter 12

AW#12

Sorry about the huge delay. Real life caught up with me for a while.

The next few days passed in a flurry of activity, I was exhausted and overwhelmed. I was trying to introduce touchy villagers to touchy dragons. It mostly went alright, but for a few singed beards, and some damaged pride, later we were working on forging lasting friendships. I think that it would have gone much more smoothly if Hiccup had been awake, but he wasn't. I was decent with the dragons, but I certainly never had the easy command and trust that came so easily to him.

Most of the villagers were won over by the dragons fishing skills, and willingness to help about the village.

The Dragons loved the village, most of them particularly loved playing with the children. They seemed to have an innate understanding of the need to be gentle, and little Viking children loved having playmates they couldn't really hurt, it was certainly a good way to most of the mother's hearts, to see intelligent creatures that cared for the children.

"I just wish Hiccup would wake up." I told Stoic as I leaned against Stormfly, she was attempting to comfort me by grooming my hair and clothes.

"Aye Lass, me too." Stoic looked tired and sad. It had now been 6 days since the attack and Hiccup hadn't woken up yet. I was beginning to doubt that he would, but couldn't find it in me to voice that thought, especially not to Stoic.

We were up in Gothi's hut once again, both waiting for some sign that Hiccup was changing for good or bad. So far, there was nothing, he was just the same. He had been running a fever for the last 4 days, I knew that it had to break soon, the longer it went on the less chance that Hiccup had of waking up. I sighed and watched Hiccup's shallow quick breaths that made my own chest tighten just watching. Toothless had been by his side the whole time, only leaving when absolutely necessary.

I envied him a bit, not having any other obligations but his own desire to guard his friend. It seemed silly to be jealous of a dragon, but I was. I had someone standing over me all the time, people were wary of me now, and it wasn't the same wariness that it was before. This was new and it was sufficcating after the freedom of the last few months. I sighed heavily, Stoic looked at me out of the corner of his eye but didn't say anything. Of everyone so far he had been the most understanding, not acting like I was going to either explode or melt, and I couldn't help but be greatful for it. I resumed my place against Stormfly's side and continued to watch Hiccup breathe.

I said some extra prayers to the gods, hoping that this time they might hear. I had a feeling that Hiccup could use all the help he could get. Toothless continued his unhappy vigil over his friend.

I stood stiffly next to my parents who stood with Stoic at the front of the Mead Hall, watching all the judging eyes and speculative looks as Stoic announce the Contract. I still didn't understand why this needed to happen now, there wasn't any reason I could see to announce it now rather than waiting to see how Hiccup recovered, or if it had all been decided between our parents that it hadn't already been announced.

"Her belly isn't even round yet!" I heard Ruff's voice from the back of the hall along with Tuff's cackling.

That made me roll my eyes, and I dearly wanted to make a comment, but Mom put her hand on my shoulder as a reminder of my place, I sighed and tried not to look too mutinous. It was insanely difficult at times, with all the muttering. The rumors weren't fair…but, well I suppose they were expected, really, didn't mean I had to be happy about it.

As long as he survived I was going to marry Hiccup. Well that wasn't how I had planned things… I always thought that I would be a shield maiden, a warrior. Certainly I didn't have the training to be a wife… or a mother. I sighed to myself as I self-consciously studied my hands, they were calloused by years of weapons work, not laundry and sewing. Though I had added some laundry and sewing callouses over the winter, I had kept the fighting ones as well, by working with the dragons.

I was woefully unprepared for this, I couldn't help but sigh again there was nothing for it but to bid my time till I could get back to Stormfly and Toothless.

I wasn't there when Hiccup finally regained consciousness, Toothless was though, and he was unbelievably overjoyed. I think that he broke more things in that single afternoon then he had the entire 2 weeks of Hiccups coma, bouncing around as he did.

Hiccup's recovery was slow, it was to be expected. He had lost a good chunk of his leg and a lot of blood, on top of the burns from the fire and just general trauma from the fall, even wrapped in Toothless' wings and protected as he was it was a long way. I could see Toothless trying to process all these things and realizing that his human friend was not nearly as resilient as a dragon. It made him pensive and timid around Hiccup and it was rather heartbreaking to watch the playful intelligent creature so subdued. Hiccup himself was frustrated as well, after the winter on our own he was used to activity, there was always something that had needed to be done, and the enforced idleness didn't sit well. Particularly when his head wasn't clear enough to work on his inventions, his temper suffered. Stoic had decided to wait to tell Hiccup about the betrothal until he was up and about again. I suspected that this was simply so that he could rush it along before Hiccup had time to think about it. I had resigned myself to it at this point, because short of dying or becoming outcast there was no way out. Not that there really was a way out for Hiccup either, but it wouldn't be life destroying either, he would still have options.

3 weeks after Hiccup woke up he was finally getting fitted with his new leg, he was overjoyed and immediately took off with Toothless. They were only gone for a short while before they were back again with an exhausted looking Hiccup and a subdued Toothless. I let Gothi and my Mom deal with Hiccup, he seemed particularly put out when displaying any weakness in front of me so I thought I would spare us both the trial and work on comforting Toothless, who was definitely depressed and anxious over Hiccups state.

"It will be okay Toothless, he is just still healing and it is going to take a while." I told him while stroking his head and Stormfly nuzzled into his side in an attempt to comfort.

Toothless gave a mournful little moan and snuffled into my belly, I couldn't help but feel very sad for him, he had been on quiet the turbulent ride since Hiccup woke up. I think that the dragon had thought that as soon as Hiccup woke up it would all be back to normal, he had a child's understanding of things. Gobber had managed to put the tail rig back together, and I was managing to learn the basics, but I didn't have the feel for it that Hiccup did and Toothless didn't enjoy flying with me as much. Plus it made Stormfly all kinds of jealous and even more protective than she already was.

Hiccup was getting better. At five weeks he was walking fairly well again and flying Toothless again, the dragon was overjoyed, and they often disappeared for hours at a time. This made me rather nervous, though I could really say why. Mom thought it was because we had spent so much time in close quarters that it felt strange to be apart. I shrugged and stammered a bit and Mom snickered at me.

At six weeks Stoic decided Hiccup was well enough to start more training and told him of the betrothal. Hiccup reacted calmly, which surprised me, I expected blustering and arguing about how others had planned his life for him. He simply nodded and said okay, and then refused to look at me for the remainder of the day.

"Mom, I think that Hiccup is going to leave." I told Mom a couple of days later.

She turned away from the bread she was kneading and looked intently at me. "And what makes you think that? I thought he seemed very settled, he ought to be please to marry you."

I sighed and composed my thoughts for a few moments before speaking "You haven't heard his dreams Mom, he always dreams of ending up back in Berk, but he wants to see the world, and learn about other people. I almost confronted him yesterday…but…" I could feel the tears in my eyes, and hated myself just a little that he could draw these feeling from me and make me feel so helpless. "He would stay, and he just might hate me for trapping him so."

Mom moved to hug me tightly, something that we hadn't done in a long time. "Oh my girl, what…"

"It was the plan Mom, he didn't plan to come back after we killed the queen. I was going to, but he was going to explore for a couple years before he came back."

We sat at the bench and I looked around the homey kitchen, that I had grown up trying to escape, and felt immensely comforted.

"Is there a pressing reason that I should speak to your father and brothers about not letting him go?" Mom asked me.

I stared at her for a few breathes before her meaning sunk in, then I laughed a little wetly. "No Mom, even all that time alone….no." I struggled to smile at her, and it was a little ironic. "I don't think you realize just how protective that dragon of mine is Mom. There is nothing to worry about on that front."

Mom smiled brightly at me and drew me in for another hug, "well I will have to get her an extra basket of fish for that." There was nothing to do but laugh and feel comforted.

Hiccup was gone within the week.


	13. Chapter 13

AW #13

Even though it was expected, it was a shock the morning Stoic came to tell me Hiccup was gone. I nodded a little numbly and left him to my parents while I took Stormfly fishing. It was something to do and I didn't have to think too hard. Mom had stopped the constant wedding talk after our talk in the kitchen, which I was beyond grateful for.

Sitting on one of the big rocks in the little cove where I had originally discovered Toothless and Hiccup in while watching Stormfly wash in the stream, I contemplated what to do. Mom and Dad would want me to continue training under Stoic, as Hiccup's betrothed it meant I was technically part of the Haddock household. Politically it would be a wise move, it would solidify Hiccup's position when he did return, it would also fend off any potential suitors for some time and give me status of my own apart from my father. It would also mean moving into the big hall with Stoic and taking on the household. It was not an easy decision.

After thinking for a while longer and doing some hunting for further procrastination, I finally went home. I watched the tension bleed out of both my parents when I walked in the door dragging a deer after settling Stormfly in the shed. Mom came over and we immediately got to work. I had done the initial field dressing, Stormfly loved the livers after all, but proper dressing out still needed doing. "I'm sorry I left you wondering." I said quietly as I worked, "I just needed to get out for a while."

Dad squeezed my shoulder "We are just glad that you are back Astrid." They were worried that I had done something silly, like chase after Hiccup, and I really couldn't blame them, not after last time.

It was a small deer and was dressed quickly when both Mom and I worked it, so it was only a couple of hours before we had everything done and the kitchen clean again. Mom had chunked some of the venison into the stew that had already been on the fire and it simmered gently.

Dad opened the conversation "Stoic would like to install you as part of the Haddock household, you knew that right?"

"Mom and I had talked about it, I knew that it was likely." Dad nodded in a satisfied manner.

"Do you have a problem with doing that? It will be a lot of hard work, and you will be expected to wait for Hiccup." Mom said in a cautioning tone.

"The betrothal has been read, without leaving Berk is there another choice?"

I expected Mom to answer, but Dad did instead "Yes, it would not be easy but it can be done." Ah, declare him dead or unfit, but then I would probably be stuck with Snotlout or I would have to leave and that would complete ruin all my reasons for staying behind.

I nodded "I will uphold it for now." I turned to my Dad "I need to be busy right now Dad, and I know that Stoic and the council will do that."

"I thought as much. You were never one to dwell." Dad told me. "I will let Stoic know."

I watched my parents after that brief discussion in the kitchen, Dad was approving and Mom was pensive. I watched my parents move around me feeling rather detached, there was so much going on that was completely out of my control and I didn't like it. Mom may not approve of me training under Stoic, but it was at least something that I could control in my life. I couldn't make the village accept the dragons, I couldn't make Hiccup come back, and I couldn't control my mom's happiness, but I could control mine.

Oh for those brave thoughts I had only a couple weeks ago as I stood at the front of the Mead Hall looking at the 2 squabbling men in front of me with Stoic standing behind me waiting for a decision. Diplomacy was much harder than I had thought, because what I really wanted to do was smack them upside the head and tell them to stop being children and figure it out themselves. I mean really a ram got loose and bred the wrong ewes, what do they expect me to do about it, I can't turn back time. I sigh and tell the men that the lambs should be divided when they are weaned…. No the ram's owner does not get to charge stud fees nor should the ewes owner claim said ram for himself, you both need to fix your fences. I did manage to actually say that in such a way as to not offend everyone.

"You did a good job Astrid" Stoic told me as he patted my shoulder, "That is one of the hardest jobs we do regularly, keeping everyone happy." He said with a laugh.

I let out a sigh of relief. "The temptation to tell them to stop being children is hard." I smirked a bit.

"Oh, Aye."

"Who!?" Gobber suddenly appeared lured by the hint of gossip.

Stoic laughed at him and life went on.

Life fell into a routine, one in which I was always busy. There was always dragons to train, disputes to settle and household chores to do. I missed Hiccup, even if I didn't have a lot of time to think about him. Part of the official betrothal was that I was now a member of the Haddock house hold, and that meant living in the Chief's Hall, I had Hiccup's old attic loft and Stoic was fond of telling me Hiccup and I would share it when he came back. Yes Chief, I do know that would come with marriage. It was awkward at first, being in his space, probably all the more awkward in some ways because Hiccup wasn't there and that made me feel like I was snooping.

I was suddenly included in all the women's activities and gossip of the wash days. That was interesting, and informative also they enjoyed making me uncomfortable. Mrs. Thorsten especially enjoyed seeing just how much she could make me blush, I could now understand where Ruff got it from.

Some of the things the women talked about made me want to hide under the bed and never come out, like child birth, oh most of the stories were fine, no one ever said it was easy, but a few were horrific. Those were the tales that they talked about loudly, then they whispered and laughed about their husband's preferences in bed. It got old after a while, babies and sex, was that all wives talked about? I sighed and continued my scrubbing, that seemed to inspire more giggling.

*

*  
Stormfly was basking in the afternoon sun after our fishing trip, and I was leaning against her belly also basking. The sun felt nice and I wanted to take advantage of the days left. Harvest was over and the first few hard freezes had happened. The fish was salted and in barrels, except what was still smoking in the smokehouse. Stoic had been fascinated with the idea and had consented to trying it when I told him about the smoke houses in the southern land near where Hiccup and I had stayed last winter. Gobber was happy to build such a thing and many people were looking forward to a little variety in the basic fare of salted fish and barley bread, with the occasional side of mutton. Tuff was absolutely enamored of the idea and was talking about smoking just about every food item he could think of, the cheese really made me laugh.

Stormfly popped her head up, and then settled again, which probably meant another dragon was coming, but she didn't think that it was a threat. I didn't have long to wait until the twins zippleback was in view but with only one rider, it turned out to be Ruff.

"Hiya Ruff!"

"Hi Astrid." Ruff sounded strangely subdued and it made me suspicious.

"What's up?" I asked.

"How did you live with Hiccup all last winter!? I mean I have Fish and Snot chasing me and I can't stand it! Which is all your fault by the way!"

"What? Why?" This I didn't quite get.

"You're betrothed! Off limits!" Ruff huffed as she sat down next to me and Stormfly snuffled at her for a moment. "I mean come on! You would think that I was the only girl left on the island the way they are acting."

I tried hard to smother my laugh, but didn't quite succeed. Ruff punched me in the arm for my troubles. The Zippleback didn't seem offended and sidled up on the other side so we were sitting between the 2 dragons, they chirped at each other for a few moments and then where happy to soak up the sun oblivious to Ruff's troubles.

"Barf and Belch don't keep them at bay?" I asked stroking the green dragons flank.

"I don't think they care much." She practically moaned. "Does yours?"

"Oh yes! Hiccup could hardly look at me before she was hissing and squawking at him. Toothless never cared, but Stormfly…. Sigh… she was probably more protective than my own mother would have been. She hasn't been nearly so bad since we came back, I don't know why."

Ruff laughed and laughed. "Oh this is way too good!" Ruff crowed. I punched her. "Totally worth it!" Her laugh was infectious, and soon I was laughing as well. It felt good to have a friend to talk to again. Leaning against the dragons in the sun after we had calmed Ruff asked "really though, I need them to back off. Maybe Stormfly will talk to Belch for me." Both dragons perked up at hearing their names. "What do you think Storm? Will you help keep Fish and Snot away?" Ruff asked Stormfly.

I watched my dragons face change, as if she was considering it. Then Stormfly squawked at Ruff and Belch and nosed at Ruff's hair before continuing to "talk" to Belch. I watched this go on, and then smirked at Ruff. "I think that you just might have gotten yourself a deal."

"Awesome!" she crowed.

We chatted for a while, till it was time to get the pots on for supper. We both left that hill feeling better I think, time with our dragons and with a girl our own age was good.

I could only laugh a week later when Ruff was grumbling about the dragons doing "too good" a job, and had a word with Stormfly later that evening back at home.

"That's too bad, we had a good time watching those dragons give those 2 boys a hard time." Came a deep voice behind me.

"Good evening Chief." I grinned at him. "I tried to tell Ruff that she might think it was too much, but she was really frustrated there was no arguing."

"You are good and loyal aren't you Stormfly?" Stoic surprised both Stormfly and myself by actually addressing her.

Stormfly cocked her head at him and then chirped and chirred as if in agreement, which I'm sure it was.

"They really do understand pretty much everything don't they?" He asked me.

I patted Stormfly's neck fondly. "Yes they really do."

Stoic nodded contemplatively. "Goodnight Astrid… Stormfly."

"Goodnight." Stormfly bobbed her head and chirred.

After heading up to the loft and getting ready for bed I looked to where Stormfly was curled up on the rug. "That was interesting, wasn't it?" Stormfly looked at me and nodded.


	14. Chapter 14

AW#14

The Midwinter feast and bonfire was huge this year, with all the dragon power available to gather the timber and the food this year making for a spectacular show.

I was sitting with Stormfly watching the fire and feeling rather sorry for myself. There was a very clear divide in the village, the married, and the unmarried. I was in limbo, and currently had the longest betrothal in village history according to Gothi. Vikings didn't wait around, you got betrothed, you got married that was it. Officially Hiccup and I had been betrothed over a year since our parents signed the contract shortly after we fled. Fish and Ruff's families were in negotiations, and would probably be married in the spring, or sooner knowing Ruff.

I missed Hiccup. I could finally admit that, I missed Toothless the big goof that he was and I was saying every prayer I could that they would come home safely. I missed them, and I was so angry. Angry that I chose to stay behind, angry that he left, angry that everyone had all these expectations for me and I was so driven to make sure that no one was disappointed that I left nothing for myself.

So here I was on one of the biggest feast nights of the year watching everyone else be happy. The dragons behavior was much more sluggish this winter than it had been on the island, I put it off to the cold, it was much colder here. So I didn't want to ask Stormfly to venture out tonight, even though I really just wanted to get away. Back to those cozy nights back on the island in the little house that we had built with the dragons and the spinning wheel Hiccup had made for me. When it warmed up I was thinking about taking a trip back to the island, maybe Ruff would come if I could pry her away from Fish…. Hel, I didn't really care if he came either. I wanted some of my own things, not what Stoic gave me or my mother could dig up, but the things that I had made, the things that we had made. Stormfly nuzzled me in that lazy sleepy way she had, and I patted her softly.

I saw mom picking her way through the crowd towards me, she came and sat beside me against Stormfly. "This cold makes her really sleepy doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I didn't know is would be this bad, it wasn't last year, but it doesn't get so cold further south."

Mom wrapped her arm around my shoulder and I couldn't help but lean into her. "You miss him?"

I nodded against her. The sympathy was making me feel so very vulnerable, I didn't like it. "I was thinking about making a trip back to the island we stayed at when it warms up."

Mom stiffened. "Why?" her voice was tight.

"I want to get some things." I paused and sat up so I could look at her. "Mom, Hiccup made some really fantastic things. A spinning wheel, a loom, you know things like that. Things that Stoic doesn't have, that I should have. Maybe I should just talk to Stoic about making it an official trip and we can go get the sheep, you should see them, they shed their coats so you just pick it up."

"Just don't go rabbiting off again, I don't think I could stand to lose you again girl." She gave me a little shake "Take yourself and this lazy beast of yours off to bed before this spectacle gets too wild."

I nodded in acknowledgment and began to coax Stormfly up. It didn't even take very long which made me wonder if she wasn't playing games with my mother, I had discovered that Stormfly could be quite devious when she wished. We made it back through the revelry to the chiefs' hall and through the front door when I realized that Stoic had stirred up the fire and was sitting rather aimlessly watching it flicker.

"Chief?" I asked tentively "Is everything alright?"

He looked up and blinked to readjust his eyes to the shadows I was standing in. "Oh, Aye. It…. It's just a night for remembering, that's all."

I smiled weakly at him "That it is." I turned away and began to head to the stairs. Then stopped, now was as good a time as any.

"Would you be interested in making a trip south to the island in the spring?" I asked him. "I was thinking about going back myself, but you might want to go. The islands nearby are mostly just small farms but it isn't far from a much bigger land. There are some very interesting sheep too… you don't have to shear them, they shed and…" I stumbled to a stop realizing that I was babbling.

"Why do you want to?" He asked.

"I was just thinking, and I want to go get some of the things that Hiccup made. Gobber might want some of the wood and metal tools, but Hiccup made me a spinning wheel and a loom. I would like to get them." There was a very long and awkward pause.

"I miss him too Astrid." The Chief finally said, and he sounded unbearably sad at that moment in time.

I nodded and gave him a weak smile and not knowing what else to do I bid him good night and headed back up the stairs to join Stormfly who had not wasted any time in going back to sleep. I laid in bed for what seemed like hours listening to Stormfly breathe and the various noises of the house, and eventually fell into a restless sleep.

*

*  
When the weather was touched by spring Stoic announced the spring raids, we were going south. He had a plan, we would take the dragons and the boats and meet on the Island, raid the bigger lands from there. The small farms were not of much interest as they weren't big enough to do much more than feed a family.

I was more anxious than I thought I had a right to be, but I was full of questions. Would the hut still be there? Had the sheep survived? Had other people found the island again as they obviously had before. I was glad to be able to let Stormfly have her head and fly with out me worrying because I was lost in my own little world for the most part. I could hear the other dragons and in particular Fish and Ruff as the flirted and Tuff going on about how gross it was. The lead group on the dragons was Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff, and me. We were to set up camp on the island and periodically check the boats progress while also scouting out the larger settlements for raiding.

It was starting to get dark when the island came into sight, we did a quick perimeter check and found no one so everyone followed me to the hut and we made camp and checked everything out. The hut was still in good shape, and I was thankful. I claimed it for Ruff and me, the boys could fend for themselves this time.

"You guys built this!? All of it?" Ruff asked in astonishment. She was studying the spinning wheel when I looked up.

"Mostly, we salvaged some from a building that we found abandoned, but otherwise yes. It was that or freeze."

"Which bed should I take? I don't want Hiccup's!"

I roll my eyes at her childishness. "I figured, this one was his." I told her as I set my pack down on it. She sniggered and I rolled my eyes at her again.

As we prepared for bed the 2 of us kept up a little bickering back and forth, it was friendly if heavily weighted in innuendo on Ruff's part. It made me realize how much I had missed her, as one of the few girls close to my age and the only other one that was interested in fighting and training at all. As I climbed into bed I found a book under the pillow.

"Oy! What's that?!" Ruff asked.

"I don't know I was pretty sure that Hiccup didn't leave any journals behind." I opened it to find some of his drawings, I had forgotten just how detailed he often was.

There was a drawing of an intricate braid, and the detailing of the veins in the wing of a terror, the scales of Toothless' leg, and a score of other little sketches and drawings of common everyday things. Ruff came to sit next to me and look at the book when I didn't answer. We paged through it in silence, till I came to pictures of a prosthetic leg, and realization struck. This wasn't left behind last spring when we battled the Queen, he left it last summer, and Hiccup had come back here after leaving Berk.

"He came here?" Ruff sounded confused.

"I guess he did, it makes sense after all, a good starting point." I tried not to let my emotions gain control, but it was hard, especially when turning another page meant finding a letter. A letter that Hiccup wrote to me, I paused wondering if I should even read it.

Hiccup had not left a note that I had ever found, so while I felt I knew him and could make a good guess as to his reasons for leaving I never actually knew for sure, that knowledge tore at me. I didn't even really care that Ruff was reading over my shoulder.

_Dear Astrid,_

_I don't know that you will even find this letter, but I should write it anyway._

_You are probably very angry with me and I really don't blame you. I just felt suffocated, everyone had expectations and wanted to congratulate and faun, and I couldn't do it. I can't stay right now. I will be back though, I promise._

_Toothless misses you and Stormfly, he likes the idea of adventure, but he is mad that we left you behind._

_Wait for me please. I will come home, just not yet._

_Love,_

_Hiccup_

"If he was here right now I'd punch him for you!" Ruff volunteered.

I choked a little laugh and broke off into a sniffle. "Thank you Ruff, you're a good friend."

"It's a good thing he isn't here then." Ruff kind of awkwardly patted my shoulder and moved back to her own bed.

I laid back down, hugged the journal to my chest, and said my prayers.

Please bring him home. It was all I could think to say.


	15. Chapter 15

A.N.: Well hi everyone. RL got super crazy for me and I have had a hard time finding time for this story, it isn't abandoned!

We stayed a week on the Island and worked out in a fan pattern reaching new lands to raid, many here were not much better off than Berk. Being cold and windswept, there weren't even the trees that Berk had to shelter it. Most of the houses were small stone buildings there wasn't much in the way of wealth. People maybe, but slaves had never been one of Berks traditions and we agreed that it wasn't time to start it now. So pickings were slim until we went quite a bit further south and hit some large temples of some kind they had gold and food which we happily liberated from their dark buildings and went on our way.

The ships arrived, we loaded them up and headed home. Some of the warriors were a little restless, but most seemed relieved to have so much with so little work. I could see a few of them eyeing the dragons and the treasures, it would be something that I would have to talk it Stoic about. Hiccup certainly would not want anything to do with using the dragons as weapons. I was still angry, but could see clearly enough to know that knowingly weaponizing the dragons was a sure way to make sure that Hiccup would never comeback. It was also a good way to have war declared by the other tribes, so while our interactions weren't always friendly with the Bog Burglar's and the Meatheads, it didn't mean that it would do us good to be at war with them. In fact Stoic pointed out that these tribes had been fighting dragons for years and were more than capable of flooding us with masses of troops that would overwhelm us even with the advantage of dragons. So we were quietly talking to the tribes closest about treaties involving the dragons.

After the Spring Raids we settled into the business of growing the crops and otherwise running the village. Stoic gave me a crash course on the treaties with neighboring tribes, including the Meatheads and Bog Burglars.

"I want you to take the treaty to the Bog Burglar's." Stoic told me one evening.

I looked up from my sewing at him in surprise. "What?!" I couldn't figure out why he would want me to negotiate with another tribe.

Stoic hesitated and seemed embarrassed, it stunned me. Finally he shared with me that they were a matriarchal Clan and as such tended to give him such a hard time that he didn't really want to deal with them, but thought that I would do very well and as Hiccup's betrothed I had the rank for it. I skeptically accepted this and resolved to ask Gobber about it later.

Gobber's tale was much more entertaining, something about stolen underpants and roof poles. "Ah 'hank ye Astrid for the laugh!"

With a little more understanding I went to meet the Bog Burglar Chieftess, and heir. Bertha and Camicazi were… unique to say the least, and seemed over joyed about Stoic sending me for negotiations. They took it as a little victory of their own.

Time passed quickly that summer, I had so much work to do between running the Chiefs house and helping with all the dragons and treaties that I fell into bed every night and drug myself up every morning. There was a sense of relief for me at first when I saw the first frost had come. It meant that life would slow down a bit and I could maybe catchup on my sleep.

It wasn't until the first heavy snow that I realized that it also meant that Hiccup was likely not coming home until spring at least. I sat looking into the fire for a long time, then I went looking for my mother, sure that she could make me feel better. I found her in my old family hall, she was baking bread. I sat in the kitchen making some dolls for my nieces while my mother baked and thankfully didn't ask questions while watching me out of the corner of her eye. The dolls were simple to make, and the girls would enjoy them, and I could pretend I was fine for a little while longer. Mom hugged me hard when I finally made to go, but still didn't say anything, the silent understanding was what I needed and she knew it. Still it was nice to have that small respite for a short time.

The winter came hard that year, Gothi said it was the coldest winter she could remember and joked about all the babies that would come this summer because of it. Everyone was thankful for all the dragon powered help over the summer we had plenty of food to last winter. The dragons were sleepier this winter, everyone looked to me and I could only guess that it was the cold. Fishlegs backed me up on that, and I was thankful that he was such a knowledge seeker, even if it was annoying at times. It was one of the things that made him and Hiccup get along so well, they both gathered knowledge simply for the sake of knowing things.

The sleepy dragons made it much lonelier for me. We had built sheds at the edge of the town proper, and slowly but surely the dragons gathered there and slept. Stormfly stayed longer than most but eventually she went as well.

I missed my dragon and I missed Hiccup and Toothless. The down time that I was desperately looking forward to during the autumn harvest I was now beginning to resent. When I was busy I didn't have time to think and dwell, and with the snow and cold, came the sleepy wintertime doings that left far too much time for thinking.

Still it wasn't all bad, I got to see another side of Stoic that I hadn't known existed. I listened to Stoics stories about Hiccups mother and how he managed to survive raising a child on his own after Valka was gone. Stoic was careful about not saying just what had happened, I learned from my mother later that the Chiefs wife had been the only Viking that the dragons had actually taken. That wasn't to say they hadn't killed or injured others, but she was the only one simply taken. It was a strange tale that made me wonder.

These peaceful evenings with Stoic were nice in their own way, he treated me like a true daughter and that acceptance was nice and something that I needed, and something that I could see he needed. I think that I didn't offer the defiance that Hiccup always had, amazingly I think that Stoic was looking for acceptance as well. Every night ended with prayers, for my family, for all the villagers and the dragons, and always ending with the same thing. "Please bring him home." Only now, I could see that it wasn't just for me that Hiccup needed to come home for, Stoic desperately needed his son to come home too.

*

*  
The midwinter bonfire was huge again, it had warmed up a little and some of the dragons were out and about again. Stormfly stayed asleep, but we had others that joined in the festivities.

I got treated to Fishlegs thoughts on the dragons sleeping patterns and how they must be kind of like bears who often got up in the winter. It was actually interesting, but I was still glad when Ruff pulled me into the dancing. It was hard to have a conversation when you couldn't get a word in.

The night passed by in a whirl of activity, noise and color. It was the most fun I had in a long time, I suspected Ruff had noticed that I was missing Stormfly and took it upon herself to cheer me up. The girl Thorsten twin could be oblivious and reckless most of the time, but could also be surprisingly thoughtful and generous when the mood struck her.

*

*  
It was a dark early spring morning when I was woken by a wuffing in my face and a hushed voice scolding someone.

"Come on bud, don't do that!" Came a voice that I almost recognized. Warm, fishy, sulfuric breath wafted over my face again and I held my breath as I tried to figure out who was in the room with me. "We don't want to wake Dad up." The same voice… followed by a dragon chuffing quietly, almost in agreement. Flints spark and the candle catches, gutters and then light grows steadily.

As the light comes up I blink at the brightness, a dragon and a man are in my room! The dragon turns to look back at me and smiles gummily, Toothless, undoubtedly Toothless. The man though still hasn't turned, it must be Hiccup… it HAS to be Hiccup! This man is tall, though! Nearly as tall as Stoic!

I sit up and Toothless wuffles and chirrs his greetings as he rubs his face against me, very cat like in his happiness. I hug him hard and laugh "I missed you too Toothless!" Our greeting continue in this way for a while until I look up at Hiccup staring at me in a gormless fashion. "You know…" I tell Toothless, rubbing his nose "Stormfly is up on the roof, and I am sure she would be thrilled to see you too."

Toothless bounces in his joy knocking Hiccup into the cupboard in his enthusiasm to get back down the stairs and outside.

"Quiet!" Hiccup yells after him, then winces at his own noise. "I didn't know you would be here." Hiccup turned back to me, looking half expectant and half embarrassed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. I decided to not hit him straight out, no used making myself predictable, even though I could see he was expecting it.

"The contract was signed and the dowry was paid" I sighed "This was considered the best action by our parents." Hiccup kind of half nodded in acknowledgement, looking rather dazed.

The longer he just stood there the more I felt nervous and out of sorts. I was in my night clothes, with my hair down and in Hiccups bed. My face might catch fire it was so hot. Honestly he didn't look much better, and I took a bit of satisfaction in that. A crash from outside drew both our attentions, undoubtedly, the 2 cavorting dragons had just knocked a cart over. "You better go get those two settled down before they wake the entire village." Hiccup practically ran for the door. I sniggered a bit as he ran and then got up to get dressed. This was going to be interesting.

I was dressed and starting down the stairs when there was another crash outside followed by Hiccup yelling and other voices both human and dragon joining in. Stoic came barreling out of his room with axe in hand, and beat me to the door. He threw it open so hard that it bounced against the frame, and threatened to crack the hinges. Stoic was in full Chief mode, obviously under the impression that we were under attack opened his mouth to start yelling when his eyes landed on Hiccup and the man just froze. His expression closely matching his son's from a few moments ago.

"Hiccup?!" Stoic asked incredulously. "Is it really you?"

"Hiccup?!" I heard a voice from the gathering crowd "Who would have known he'd get so tall?"

It kind of went into a general cacophony of questions after that, I hung back at the edge of the crowd suddenly feeling very nervous about this virtual stranger who had suddenly dropped back into our lives. My axe and fighting skills, even my skills with the dragons that I had developed weren't great armor for the battle that I was sure was coming.


	16. Chapter 16

AW #16

The next few days made Fish and Ruff's wedding the previous fall look calm by comparison, and that had been a fiasco that would go down in the annals' of Berks rather varied and colorful history.

We had absolute chaos for that first week that Hiccup was home, and a large part of it was our wedding. Of course since Hiccup was the son of a chief any wedding had to include other tribesmen. So invitations were sent by dragon to the Bog Burglars, the Meatheads, and a few others that Berk was friendly with.

I was greatly nervous, I hadn't even really seen Hiccup other than in passing. We were both very busy with all the guests coming in and other arrangements being made. I could only really hope that Hiccup hadn't changed as much in personality as he had in appearance. It the 2 years he had been gone he had grown, a lot, as he was now close to Stoics height though not nearly as heavily built, and I suspected he never would be.

Hiccup was now nearly as tall as Stoic, his hair had darkened slightly and he had a new scar that came perilously close to one eye, I hadn't gotten the story about yet but planned to soon. He had definitely spent time in a smithy and had made himself a new leg that was incredibly complex looking and seemed to allow him to even run. It also had some kind of designs in the metal but again I hadn't gotten close enough to see what they were.

I sighed as I helped Stormfly out with her grooming, polishing her face scales and tending to the harness marks which she hated. Having marks didn't appeal to her vanity, I was glad she gave me something to focus on outside of the business of the tribe because that was basically my personal life. There was a shuffling sound behind me and I turned to see what it was. Toothless was pushing the door open, almost like he was sneaking around. Stormfly squawked at him in greeting, he chuffed back at her and they began their elaborate play dance that seemed unique to the two of them.

"Take it outside you two… I won't have you breaking the house!" I said mock sternly, they did their dragony laughs at me and scrambled out the door.

Hiccup and I sat by the fire for hours talking about everything, his wanderings and the crazy things he had seen and my time learning how to lead the tribe.

It was a nice time, and reminded me of our winter on the island.

"I found your journal" I told him, the one you left on the island.

Hiccup suddenly looked very self-conscious. "I… I did wonder. A lot of things were gone when I stopped there on my way back to Berk."

"Yeah, I took the dragon riders there the first summer back. I collected a lot of the stuff we had made and then we used it as a scouting base for a week or so while the long boats caught up."

"You didn't use the dragons for raids did you?!" I could see Hiccup's outrage getting ready to set in.

"No!" I cut him off quickly "Scouting only, and only at night so they wouldn't be associated with the raids. That was before the pacts were made with the other tribes even. I knew that using the dragons as weapons would not only make sure you never came back, but would also put us at war with the rest of the tribes. Not something your father or the rest of the council wanted and we were able to put down the few malcontents."

I could see Hiccup relaxing as I explained the situation. Though I definitely felt more than a little resentful that he abandoned us to our own ends and then felt he could come back and had a right to be outraged at how anything was handled. Times like these made me realize how spoiled Hiccup was, sure he didn't think so, but any other Viking in the tribe would have been exiled long since for the exploits that he had pulled. The only reason he wasn't, was because he was the Chiefs son. I also in that moment realized the futility of bringing anything like that up. Hiccup wouldn't agree and Stoics behavior of late told the same story. Stoic felt badly about his treatment of his son over the years and was now bending over backwards to try and make up for it, without realizing that while he had been hard on Hiccup, that was also what Hiccup had needed. Neither had a balance to keep the family even, there was only Hiccup and Stoic, Hiccup's mother had died carried off by dragons when Hiccup was just a baby.

I resolved to talk to Gobber about the situation, he would be the only one who knew and would be willing to talk to me. Things had been tough for the whole village that year and the year after, and no one ever talked of the Chief's wife or the fact that he had never married again, which was highly unusual in the Viking world of arranged marriages.

"I'm sorry that I left so long, Astrid." Hiccup proclaimed solemnly looking into the fire and not at me. "I just couldn't take being hemmed in before I had seen the world, I hope you understand." He went on fiddling with the straps on his leg. "I didn't think about where that would leave you."

I sighed. "I really do understand Hiccup, and I agree, you didn't think." He finally looked up at me when I said that. "Do you understand that with the Contract between our parents and you gone what position that put me in? That I was basically forced to take on the role of wife of the Chief even though I was no such thing, regardless of whether I was ready for it or not?"

"But I…."He started.

"No!" I interrupted. "You don't just get to say sorry and have this all be over….be absolved of everything. There were consequences to what you did and you didn't have to deal with them, I did. So you will have to forgive me for being a little mad about it."

He sighed heavily. "I really am sorry Astrid."

"I know, and I do forgive you. You need to be patient with me, because I'm not sure I can entirely trust you."

"What! Why!?" This seemed to really upset him.

I go up and walked around the fire to Hiccup and sat down next to him, his eyes followed me the whole way. "You have to show me that you aren't going to up and leave when things happen that you don't want to deal with or are uncomfortable with. That you won't put your own good over the tribes or our future family's." I could see this idea made him twitchy, leave it to Hiccup to not even think about the consequences of marriage.

"Family? I guess I never really thought about it."

"Yeah I get that picture." I tried to tease him and lighten the mood. "That does tend to happen when people get married Hiccup."

"I know that!" He shouted, startling Toothless out of sleep. Toothless looked very disgruntled, and burbled at us probably telling us to stop being silly and go to sleep like reasonable creatures.

I decided to take Toothless's very good suggestion. "Goodnight Hiccup, we can talk more tomorrow." I practically ran for the stairs. I heard him mumble something that may have been goodnight, or not, but I couldn't deal with it right now.

Thankfully Hiccup and I had a few other good talks in the weeks following. Though we had some pretty stressful times. It was good to actually get somethings straightened out and not be worried about perpetually offending each other. Somethings we just had to let go, like me being mad about him leaving and him being mad at me for being mad. I still thought I was in the right, but as my mother said. "Would you rather be right, or happy?"

The date for the Wedding screamed up on us, with all the duties of running the village and Hiccup was trying to add onto the house because he didn't want to have Stoic sleeping in the loft and Stoic was trying to give us the bedroom. Hiccup told me that he couldn't bear to have his dad move out of the room that still held Stoic's memories of Valka, Hiccup's mother. It wasn't that I disagreed with it, it was just one more thing to try to pack into the day. Thankfully Fishlegs was over to help Hiccup quite often, he and Meatlug helped out tremendously. Though I did find out that it wasn't entirely altruistic as apparently Ruff was pregnant, and while she had doted upon Fishlegs previously didn't want him anywhere near now so he escaped to help Hiccup.

I was spending more time with my parents again, Mom insisted that we do a lot of sewing. My wedding dress, linens of all sorts, and mom insisted on sewing baby clothes. I sighed about it, and she laughed at me and put them in a box for 'later'. Ha ha mom.


End file.
